Loss, Love, and Life
by AngelwiththeClippedWings
Summary: Ever wonder what it would be like to be an Eraser? Meet Felix, an Eraser in the service of Jeb. But what happens when Ari and a colorful cast of other Erasers get thrown into the mix? And can he find purpose in a life that he was never meant to have?
1. Chapter 1

Thank you for taking your time to not only read my fanfic, but for taking the time to read the author's note. That a good thing because I have something important to tell you. **This is a sequel!** If you haven't read my other story _My name is Fang: Welcome to my Hell_ then you need to find it (search under tragedy), and read it before you read this one. Trust me if you don't this story will sound crazy at first, and everything will be a whole lot clearer if you read my other story (I'm still accepting reviews for my last story as well!). And if you by chance already have read my other story, you get double bonus extra credit and an invisible cookie. Enjoy.

Synopsis: This is what happened to Felix during the twelve years that he was working for Jeb. See if you read my other story, you would know who Felix is. Remember, **this is a sequel!** But since this happened in the past, relative to my other story, that also makes this story a prequel! Oh the joys of building upon your past work. Anyway, if you ever wondered what it was like as an Eraser, it's time you found out. Be prepared for adventure, mystery, romance, and all the other good stuff.

I suppose that I've kept you all waiting long enough. Just one last thing.

I own nothing!

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_Loss, Love, and Life_

By: AngelwiththeClippedWings

This story is dedicated to my sister Taylor, thank you for giving me a purpose.

Chapter 1: Alpha pack

Sun was shining through the window, the only noise in the room was the sound of the ceiling fans and the bubbling of the fish tank. It was just another day for me. One more chance to finish reading Dante Alighieri's _Inferno_, which I had spent a considerable amount of time reading. I was sitting in the plush red armchair next to the fireplace and the bookcase. The door on the other side of the room clicked open, and Phoenix walked in. When she caught sight of me she crossed her arms smirked.

"You're still reading that? I thought you finished days ago." She walked over to the aquarium and fed the fish. By default they were her fish, she was the only one (besides me) who ever fed them.

"It's good to see you too Phoenix. How's Venice this time of the year?" I asked, not taking my eyes off of the page. She finished and walked over crouching down behind the arm chair.

"Same as always, waterlogged. Although they've made a lot of progress at Atlantis. Where are Dante and Virgil now?" She said looking over my shoulder.

"They've just arrived at the frigid center of Hell, and Dante was describing Satan and his three heads. Lovely imagery." What could possibly be more interesting then a three headed devil, chewing one of the worst traitors in history in each of it's three mouths?

"You're such a book worm Felix. You've read every book on the shelf, and them some."

"I've had a lot of time to read." Seeing as how I had plenty of downtime in between missions, what else was an Eraser supposed to do?

"Have you even done anything else all day?" She was curious and somewhat worried, or at least that's the way she sounded to me.

"Does it matter?" Which was my way of saying no.

"Yes, yes it does. You can't just waste your life like this." She put her hands on my shoulders. She wanted to do something, possibly go out on the town.

"Why not, our time isn't limited like those inferior dullards." I was the first Eraser that worked, and Phoenix was part of the Alpha pack, the first real batch of Erasers. Alpha pack was different from the rest, why? We didn't have expiration dates like the rest of the Erasers that Jeb and the other scientists created. We were the first of our kind, the 'experimentals', and as such they expected us to fail. But we didn't, and they found a use for us. "It's a blessing of being an Alpha." I closed the _Divine Comedy_, and let out a sigh. "But I suppose that life is best spent living." I was barely able to set the book down before she pulled me out of my chair and drag me out the door.

"So what exactly were you planning on doing?" I said trying to keep pace with her. She was pulling me so hard my arm almost popped out of its socket.

"You need a night on the town." I knew it. "When was the last time you left the School?" We were going down the hall, passing doors, and windows that gave access to the various testing rooms.

"The last time I had a mission, which makes it about two weeks ago. Where are you taking me?" I managed to say once I regained my balance. We were just about to round a corner when she almost ran into someone.

"Yes Phoenix, where are you taking him?" Odin said as Phoenix almost crashed into him. Odin's face was stone like and as emotionless as ever. This lack of luster was even creepy to me. He was taller then either of us by a good five inches, and he seemed to tower over everybody around him. He had these deep forest green eyes, and this thick and seemingly unruly black hair. He was wearing the standard black suit that all Erasers wear. He was part of Alpha pack, in fact he was the leader, which was mostly due to the fact that he was eighteen and the oldest out of all of us. I wasn't a big fan of leading the pack, even if I was the first Eraser that worked.

Of course he was in stark contrast to his sister, Phoenix. She was about my height, and had this long dark caramel colored hair that cascaded down her back. She had the same forest green eyes as Odin, but her's seemed warmer and more welcoming, like if the sun was shining through the leafs. She was also sixteen, the same as me. We hung out a lot, although it was to Odin's disapproval, he was very protective of his little sister, but then again to him, everything seemed little to him. Phoenix knew that she had to make something up that was believable to tell him, it was the only way to get me out of the School.

"I was taking him to the lab so he could see the newest experiments. Not to mention those avians." Good cover. Jeb did say that they were working on something new today. The avians, a special breed of experiments that we Erasers just loved to mess with. They were 98% human, but 2% bird, the resulting mutation was wings. Yes they could fly, and they were stubborn little beasts. We had to keep them from escaping on multiple occasions. There was no chance that they would ever escape though, if they got out, we were supposed to hunt them down and bring them back by any means necessary. Although few of the experiments that were unfortunate enough to escape ever came back in one piece. We used them as practice, and as prey. Our wolf genes gave us an innate blood lust that could drive a sane man mad, and to us, all other experiments are like food in a cage.

"Well I hope that the two of you can keep them in line. I heard that the new ones weren't much of anything, just a few short breaths of pains and then they were gone. The bodies are still there if you want to see them." He walked past us and headed towards the break room. "If you need me, I'll be in here." Phoenix waited until the door closed behind him before she let out a sigh.

"Too close for comfort. Come on." She gave my arm another yank and continued to pull me through the halls. It had been so long since she had been back, I forgot how strong she was. I mean she was an Eraser, but still. She pulled me towards the lab, we had to be there because Odin was going to ask if we ever showed up. We entered the lab to find a group of white coats huddled around a deceased experiment. It looked as if the failure had been ripped to shreds by one of us. I walked by them with out even paying attention.

"Looks like Epsilon pack had some fun today. Whose handy work is this?" I said stopping in front of a computer screen full of numbers.

"Alex. The beast wouldn't stop even after it was dead." Replied one of the white coats, I didn't see who it was. I let out a small chuckle to myself. Alex truly was a beast. He was one of the few people that had adapted to their Eraser powers quickly. I was used to it because I had been an Eraser all my life. Everyone else became one at some point in their lives. The problem was the white coats didn't give people long enough to adapt to their new forms, the mutations were immature, and complications could arise at any time, usually resulting in a premature death. That was the case for every one that wasn't in Alpha pack. We were given years to adapt to our bodies before a proper field test was administered.

Phoenix didn't say a word the whole time we were in the room. For some reason she was always quiet whenever the white coats were around. She grabbed my sleeve, and I gave it a slight tug, a signal that she wanted to leave. So I grabbed her arm and walked her to the holding unit. Inside the room were security cameras, and cages lined the walls. Inside six of the cages were six of my favorite mutants. I seamlessly transformed into my Eraser body, my muscular form pressing on the inside of my suit, but my face was what I really wanted them to see. I let my claws bang against the bars of the cages. My being was filled with the sudden urge to kill whatever it saw next, the need to kill, to spill blood. The satisfaction that came when you take the life of another being. It made you feel powerful, you could end an existence, silence pleas. Being an Eraser would do that to you, you lost yourself in the blood lust, you were never quite yourself. Some part of you went away, and it bred madness in its absence.

I growled and took heavy steps, practically slamming my feet into the ground. I stopped in front of one of the cages and crouched down to see the avian cowering at the back of the thing was small, it's fluffy white wings wrapped around it's body, I snarled at it bearing my fangs. It had blond locks that it tried to use to cover its face. It was a tiny little thing and it couldn't have been more then a few years old.

"I hope the white coats don't work you too hard. I want you to be nice and tender when I eat you." I gnashed at it through the bars and let out an intimidating bark. The avian screamed, and I laughed at its fear. I got up and walked back towards Phoenix, she had a devilish smile on her face. We left the room and lab, and continued down the hall. Then she tapped me on the shoulder.

"Nice touch there with the bark. Very beastly." She said sarcastically.

"Thanks. I would prefer not to, but they're such freaks, and the Eraser in me just wants to rip them apart. I guess it's the time they made me wait for adaptation. I'm used to the blood thirst, I can restrain myself. Unlike Alex, did you see what he did?"

"It was horrifying. It's amazing to believe he's as good as he is, even if he is an Epsilon." We kept on walking, she didn't try to pull me anymore, she knew I was coming where ever she was taking me.

"So where exactly are we going?"

"It's a surprise." He smiled at me. I raised an eyebrow. "You'll like it, trust me." Knowing her, it could be anything. But I suppose that was the fun of it all, the mystery. She led the way towards the main exit, the fake secretary sitting at the table in case anyone unauthorized tried to come in, which was basically everyone. Not that anyone ever came here anyway. "You have your I.D. on you?"

"Of course." No Eraser would be caught dead in public without fake I.D. I pulled a small remote out of my pocket and pressed a button. A garage door next to the main entrance opened up. Inside were a few motorcycles, all painted a polished black color. Ah the perks of being an Eraser, you get to ride in style, courtesy of Itex. They figure if we could sell our lives to them, then the least they could do is give us a cool mode of transportation.

"Aw man, the car's gone. Who took it?" She was clearly disappointed.

"No idea." Alex took the car out with the rest of his pack to celebrate his "stunning victory" over the experiment. But I didn't want to bring him up, she had something planned and I didn't want to ruin it by bringing him into the conversation.

"Well I guess we'll have to take one of Odin's rides." I shot her a puzzled look.

"You've gone mad haven't you. He'll have our heads if he finds out." I warned. Odin was also very protective of his prized motorcycle. No one was allowed to ride it but him. She tossed me a helmet and put her's on.

"Well come on! I thought you said that life was best spent living." She said impatiently, the key dangling from her hand. Reluctantly I put on the helmet with a sigh, and got on. Phoenix sat in the back and wrapped her arms around my waist, holding her body close to mine. Something deep inside me purred in delight. I shook it off when the engine started, and we rode out of the School like we were escaping experiments, leaving a long dust cloud behind us.

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If you read this and you have no idea who Felix is, then clearly you didn't read my author's note at the beginning. **This is a sequel! **To those who read my other story, I hope that you enjoyed your invisible cookie. :)**  
**

Well there you have it, the first chapter. I had a lot of characters that I had to introduce in this chapter, and they're all important. I wasn't as satisfied with this chapter as I would have liked, but I hoped that you enjoyed it. If you read my other story, I will be bringing back some old and familiar concepts. Nothing is as it seems.

In case you were wondering, this chapter takes place four years before Fang left the Flock. So that means that they are still at the School before Jeb rescued them. I thought that this was a little boring for a first chapter, but the plot will pick up. Thanks for reading and be on the look out for updates. With school starting up for me, they may be few and far between but I'll try. Why must summer break end! Please review, and continue to read. TBC, so all in due time.


	2. Chapter 2

Well I must admit, I didn't expect to get a review that fast. I'm not kidding, chapter one isn't up ten minutes and I get a review. Wow.

On another note, I wish that I could have made Felix more of an animal in the last chapter. The problem is, his personality just didn't fit the bill. Then again those Alpha pack Erasers are really weird. I haven't even posted anything on some of them yet. Oh look at me, giving away secrets. Anyway, I hope that you took the time to read _My name is Fang: Welcome to my Hell_. If you did, I hoped that you enjoyed it. But I suppose that you want to get back to Felix and Phoenix. I've got a couple of things in store for them in the future but right now, I'll let them be. I smell romance.

But if you know me, I always have some diabolical way to screw everything up...

I own nothing!

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Chapter 2: Almost a Date

You would think that with the heat of the sun and our choice of apparel, we would be baking ourselves to death. Well not at the (questionably fast) speed that I was driving the motorcycle. The faster I went the tighter Phoenix's grip on me became. I had no idea where she wanted us to go, she never told me. So I just kept driving around the expanse, waiting for her to say something, but she never said anything. When we came to a cliff I stopped and let out a heavy sigh. The view was truly amazing, the world seemed to open up before us, as if we were at the edge of our world and we were gazing into another.

"Where exactly did you want to take me?"

"Anywhere you wanted to go." She said as she got off of the bike. She took off her helmet and her long hair fell down in waves, gently blowing in the slight breeze. I took off my helmet and ran my fingers through my hair.

"So you just wanted to get me out of the School." I was thinking out loud, and she just stood there smiling at me.

"I wanted to spend time with you." She said quietly, walking over to me. The sky was already starting to change color from the setting sun.

"So that's the answer to this riddle." I said getting off the bike. I crossed my arms when she got close to me. "Did you miss me when you were in Venice?" I might as well play her little game.

"Maybe." She sat down on the edge of the cliff, and motioned for me to follow suit. I sat down next to her, and gazed at the world before us. I don't know if it was because she had been gone for awhile, or if it was the lighting, but she looked different to me. So serene and peaceful. "Hey Felix?"

"Yes?"

"Do you remember when we first met?" My mind was thrown into the past. Memories flew past my mind's eye like files. I remembered the day clearly. It was one of the most important days in my life.

"I remember. I was ten years old, and I was still learning how to control my powers. When I first saw you I was in my Eraser form, you couldn't take your eyes off of me. I was like a nightmare that came true. But then after I returned to my normal form, your relaxed. I taught you how you shouldn't be afraid of your powers." I chuckled slightly. "I remember you tried to kill me the first time you became an Eraser."

"I'm sorry." She let her head fall in embarrassment, as if she had anything to be guilty about.

"The funny thing is that this was the first time that you apologized to me about that. When you regained control, I had you pinned to the ground." I left out the part about how she had blushed a deep shade of red. That was the first time that I got a good look at her eyes, the first time I lost myself in that elusive forest grove. Then I got up and looked away, and blushed lightly. But that seemed so long ago.

"You know when I realized what was going on, I thought of you as a hero that was saving me from the monster inside of me." She had been so terrified of herself after she became one of us. I was there the whole time helping her to see it as a blessing and not a curse. "You don't know how much that meant to me."

"You don't know how much it meant to me." I echoed. It was the first time that I ever saw anyone else my age that I could relate to. She was my first and closest friend. It was hard growing up with no past, no family. To be honest I was kind of jealous of her, she had Odin, I had no one. She looked at me and smiled. I leaded back and held myself up with my hands behind me, but one of them landed on top of hers. The same deep shade of red came over her face and she looked away, my hand retracted out of shock. My skin was on fire from the contact, but my hand seemed so cold without her skin on mine. I couldn't explain it. Both of us had a look on our faces that screamed 'did that really just happen?', but indeed it happened. "I'm sorry." I said looking away, the same light blush crept onto my face, so I turned away. Phoenix was oddly silent and there was a pause before she responded.

"Don't be. I don't mind." I could never understand her. I would give anything to be able to read minds.

_Your dreams aren't as far away as you may think they are._

Oh but they are. I was in love with her, but there is no way that she could feel the same way about me. I was her best friend, her mentor. We could never be anything more, no matter how badly I wished. I was a fool for even thinking that we could be more. She put her hand on my back, the contact gave me goosebumps.

"Felix..." That was all she said. "What's wrong?" She had this look of guilt on her face, as if she had done something wrong.

"Nothing. Nothing at all." I got up and took a few steps away from her. Why does she feel guilty when it was all my fault. I wanted to be next to her, but I was so afraid of what might happen. she didn't deserve me either, I was a creation, I wasn't a real person. She had a soul, a life, I was made to serve. I was an experiment that might not have even worked. "I'm so sorry Phoenix." I blurted out.

"For what?" She was as confused as I was. What was I supposed to do? I'm in love with her, but I'm afraid to love got up and came over to me. My back was to her, and she wrapped her arms around me. "I told you, all I wanted was to spend time with you." I felt her body shake slightly. She buried her face into my back and mumbled something. My whole body was on fire, but my heart was ice cold. My mind was screaming yes and no. "Felix." She let go of me, and I spun around to face her. The light was shining off of her eyes and I lost myself in that tranquil grove again. I didn't even know what I was doing, but I reached out and pulled her close to me. I could feel her heart racing in unison with mine. Her arms slithered their way around my back, and her buried her face in my chest this time and mumbled something again.

_"Don't you get it? What did I do, where did I go wrong? Or do you even feel the same way? Don't you get? I love you Felix!"_

Her voice was clear in my head. Was it even her mind, or did I make it all up? Only one way to find out.

"I do Phoenix." Her head sprang up so fast I'm surprised that she didn't get whiplash. Her face was a deep shade of red. Did I really just read her mind?

I couldn't figure it out because at that moment my cell phone rang. We let go of each other, and I reached into my pocket and pulled it out. I flipped it open only to hear Odin on the other end practically yelling at me.

"Where the hell are you two?"

"What's going on Odin?"

"He's escaped again." I almost dropped my phone out of shock.

"How long ago?" I had to put everything in the world on hold for this.

"Not to long, he couldn't have gotten far, but we need everyone here to stop him."

"We're on our way." I flipped the phone shut and nodded at Phoenix. We both ran back to the motorcycle and hurried back to the School as fast as the engine would allow.

The School was in total lock down mode. Cameras were swiveling back and forth, the scientists had locked themselves in the laboratories, and Erasers were patrolling the hallways, guns in hand. We almost never used our guns unless the situation called for it. Mostly because many of the other packs got a high from the blood lust of being an Eraser. Odin was in the break room with Jeb, and they were coordinating the packs to search each of the floors.

"So he hasn't left the facility yet? He's taking his time." I said almost callously making my way towards the floor plan of the School. Jeb looked like he was about to kill something. Odin was circling the areas that the other packs were to cover.

"No no yet, he seems to be after something this time, it's almost as if he's been testing us all this time. Finding out our week points. Felix do you have any idea where he might be?"

"Have you checked the central data banks, that has every bit of recorded data on all of us?"

"Alex has that room covered, he wouldn't go there if he valued his life."

"That's the thing though... he doesn't." Jeb said, near hysteria. He cackled, I never heard him cackle before, it was straight out of a horror movie.

"Did you check the living quarters?" Phoenix said from behind me. She had been so silent after what happened at the cliff. I had to talk to her later, sort out this ugly mess.

"No, why in blazes would he go there?" Odin said. It was as if the light bulb above his head turned on. "It's the last place we would look. Jeb, send out the message, everyone is to return to their rooms, but be aware." He looked at us. "I'll deal with the two of you later, we aren't finished." He looked at me almost threateningly, and he gave Phoenix a look of disapproval. "Well what are waiting for, you heard the order." We both left the room, and headed down the hall way towards the living quarters. Itex likes to keep as low a profile on us as possible, so they house us in their facilities around the world.

"I can't believe that he broke out again. Why haven't they terminated him yet?" She said following me from a few steps.

"Because he keeps on talking. Why destroy a fountain of knowledge. He's a madman, but he's the most important madman in the world." I stopped in front of the locked door leading into the living quarters. I morphed my hand into a paw and placed it on the scanner. The door slid open and we entered the dark on the other side. The motion activated lights clicked on one by one, lighting up the long hall. It branched off into sub-sectors that held the rooms for each of the packs. In each sub-sector was an individual room for each Eraser. It was easy to get lost, that is, if you didn't live there.

We made our way towards the Alpha sub-sector, but when we rounded the corner, we saw Hades on the floor. Hades was the leader of Beta pack, and he was one of the best fighters in the School. He was also one of the few people that I could talk to. He had a nasty set of claw marks on his back, he cuts weren't deep, but he was hurt pretty bad. We ran up to him, Phoenix flipped him over and set him up against the wall.

"What the hell happened to you?" She asked. Hades coughed trying to get his breathing started again.

"It's about time you two showed up... He's somewhere in your pack's area." He looked at us a little concerned. "You need to be extra careful, Odin will have your head if you let anything happen to her." I got to my feet and walked down the hall, trying to sense where he went.

"Felix! Are you crazy? You can't go after him alone." Phoenix ran up to was stubborn, I wasn't going to get her to stay behind and help Hades.

"Only if I go in first." I said with a sigh. We walked down the hall and came to a group of doors that led to our rooms. I stopped in front of mine, the door seemed cold and forbidding for some reason. The door knob had a tiny fleck of blood on it. My hand gripped the door knob, and tightened with anxiety. I had no idea what could be waiting for me. I signaled for Phoenix to wait, but she grabbed my hand and pulled me back. "No, you don't understand. I can't let you go in there."

"Why not?" She looked at me, her eyes begging me for an answer. Longing for something that I couldn't quite identify. I looked away and sighed. My mind was not ready for this, I was being tore between the mission at hand, and her.

"We'll talk about this later." I opened the door, and closed it behind me, locking the door.

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Like I said, I always have some way to screw everything up, now don't I. ah, young love, why must you be so confusing. It's a mixture of passion and fear. Strength and confusion. It's a little hard to describe. Don't worry though, they'll get to talk later. It's hard do describe confusion, poor Felix. He has so much going through his head.

But first, he has to have a confrontation with a mysterious escapee. Plus Odin has to talk with both of them. So much to do, and I have so little time left, but I will try to update as subsequently as I possibly can. Please review and continue to read. TBC, so all in due time.


	3. Chapter 3

It's time for Felix to meet the mysterious escapee. Although with the way that he's been talking about him, it seems as if they have met before. I guarantee that the sparks are going to fly. I've been waiting for a long time to introduce this character, and depending on how you interpret him he could be a hero in the end, or one of the sickest and most twisted villains of all time. Crazy is as crazy does. I'm going to have some fun with this guy.

Oh and Felix and Phoenix get to finish their conversation as well.

I own nothing!

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Chapter 3: Stranger then Fiction

The door clicked shut, and I was alone in my room. The door was sound proof so I couldn't hear Phoenix on the other side. I felt so bad for leaving her there all alone. I had to make it up to her somehow. My room was cold, I had the air conditioner on during the summer, and my room was o small that it dropped the temperature to almost freezing. Or at least that's what it seemed like. I walked over to my bed, everything was the way that I had left it. I walked over to my closet and soundlessly morphed into an Eraser.I over came the initial rush and steadied myself. My paw wrapped around the handles, I braced my self for anything. Except an empty closet. All that was in there were my other suits.

"It's been a long time hasn't it Felix." I spun around to find an old man in a tattered and dirty Eraser suit. He was sitting on my bed flipping through a book that seemed to be hand written. He had long scraggly black hair and an untamed bread. Not to mention his black soulless eyes that seemed to drain the light from the world. He smiled at me or at least he tried to because when he did, his face elongated into a snout, and all I could see were his sickening yellow fangs. His face returned to it's normal state and he proceeded to flip through the book.

"What are you doing here Locke?" I bore my fangs and claws, trying to make myself as menacing as possible. But he just sat there flipping through the book.

"There's no need to pretend here Felix. I'm not here to escape. I'm here to see you." He stopped at a blank page and set the book down.

"What?" I may have been the first Eraser that worked. But Old Man Locke was the first Eraser ever. He was a scientist that used to be on the Itex board of directors. He was one of the first people to work on the recombinant DNA experiments, and he was also one of the first people to be tested on. He chose wolf DNA. The experiment was a success, but the after affects were monstrous. He drove himself insane in the unforeseen blood lust, other unnatural mutations occurred as well, and the Eraser project was canceled. That is, until Jeb tried it again and created me. after his success the Eraser project was reinstated, and my kin were born.

"How like you, so young and so confused. If only you knew the truth."

"Explain yourself."

"Oh, be patient, I intend to." He paused and pulled a pen out from his coat pocket. "Have you ever wondered why all the Erasers are of a different age? It's because the process of creating an Eraser requires a body. Every Eraser was once a human, you are no exception."

"I was created!"

"Indeed you were. You were created from a person such as I once was. But now we are beasts, monsters if you will. You were made to serve Jeb, or so you were told. Is that truly what you think you're purpose is?" I nodded, not taking my eyes off of him for an instant. "How foolish of you boy. Think! If you used to existed before your becoming an Eraser at the hands of Jeb, then you have indeed lost something... your past. Your life did not begin eight years ago as you had been told. You were born, the same as any other child fated to fall into the hands of my successors. Do you understand? There is more to you then you realize!" He jotted something down in the book and closed it. "I hope that you enjoyed that little tidbit of information." There was a thud at my door.

"Felix! Are you in there!" Odin yelled from the other side of the door.

"Well I suppose that I've caused quite the uproar. I've done what I've intended. Go ahead Felix, open the door." I stood there staring at him for a few seconds, unsure of what I was going to do next. The door flew off of its hinges with a bang. Odin, Phoenix, Hades, and Jeb stormed into the room. Locke grabbed his book and stuck his hands out, so Odin could put handcuffs on him.

"What the hell happened here? I expected one of you to be dead!" Odin was furious, I really didn't want to be in a room with him when this ordeal was over.

"Calm yourself Odin. Hades, take Locke back to his holding cell, and make sure that he's chained up extra tight this time." Jeb said, motioning for a patched up Hades to walk Locke back to his cage.

"Thank you Jeb, you're so generous." Locke said as he was escorted out of my room. We could hear him cackle long after he was gone because of the echo.

"Jeb why is he still here? He knows this place like the back of his hand. Would it be safer to move him to another facility?"

"We couldn't afford it, if there was a security breach and he escaped, we would never be able to catch him. He knows to much. Besides, if he wanted to escape, I'm sure that he could have done it long ago. What happened here Felix?"

"I found him on my bed flipping through that book, then he started droning on like the madman he is. He said nothing of any importance." Jeb's eyes scanned the room, then he stared at me, analyzing what I had just told him.

"Well, I better make sure that Hades takes care of Locke properly. Crisis averted, the alarm is down, you can return to your previous obligations." He left my room with his arms crossed behind his back. Odin closed the door behind him.

"OK like I was saying, what the hell is going on? You two disappear, Old Man Locke breaks out, you take Phoenix with you as back up, and when we have to come and save you, you're having a pleasant conversation with the criminally insane!"

"Odin relax. Felix didn't take me as his back up, I went with him even though he wanted to go alone." Phoenix said trying to calm her raging brother.

"I need some air." He stormed out of my room, leaving behind an awkward silence. Phoenix let out a heavy sigh and sat down on my bed. Her head was in her hands.

"It's all my fault." She sounded hopeless. I sat down next to her and put my arm around her. I didn't know if I was supposed to say anything, but being next to her seemed to help. "I shouldn't have come with you. After the door locked, I assumed the worst and hurried back to Odin and Jeb. When they saw Hades, they got upset with me for not going in with you. I tried to explain what happened but I couldn't find the words. I'm so sorry for causing this whole mess." She turned away from me, trying to hide herself. I just sat there, what was I supposed to do, or say? I started rubbing her back, trying my best to console her.

"It's not your fault Phoenix, its mine. I was the one that let you come with me, it's my fault that I didn't let you in my room. I'm the one who should be sorry."

"How can you be sorry. I was the one that tried to have some time with you. If it wasn't for me, we could have been here when Locke broke out. I'm the reason that Odin is so furious, I put you in harms way." She turned around but my arm was still on her shoulder. She wouldn't look me in the eyes, she seemed so sad. If only I could figure out what was bothering her. I felt so bad inside because I didn't want her to be sad, she meant to much to me.

"Felix what did you mean early? When we were at the cliff? You said 'I do'." That was after I thought I heard her voice in my head. After I thought I heard her say that she loved me. Could I really tell her that? "I'm such an idiot." She pushed my arm off then got up and started walking towards the door. I grabbed her arm tightly, my heart was begging her not to go. But my mind was terrified of what might happen. I got up and held her face forcing her to look me in the eyes. I saw fear in her eyes, but she didn't move. She didn't know what was going to happen and neither did I. "Felix... I..." I put a finger to her lips. Was I really going to go through with this? Was I going to tell her how I feel?

"Not another word." She was going to say something but she never got the sound out of her mouth. Why? Because her lips were pressed to mine. I swear I blacked out for only a fraction of a second. She wasn't fighting it, in fact she seemed to want it. She even kissed me back. Her lips were so soft, the feeling was indescribable. I felt like I was three feet off of the ground, slowly rising on my way to heaven. Her arms slithered up to my neck, and pulled me closer. I wrapped my arms around her waist, pressing her body against mine. We finally ended the kiss out of the need for air. "I think that was unexpected to both of us." I said with a smile on my face. She giggled.

"You don't know how long I've wanted that to happen." She let her arms fall to her sides. "I'm just surprised that you felt the same way."

"I've always felt the same way. I've just been-"

"Too afraid to show it?" She smiled at me. "So was I. I was unsure whether or not you even liked me. I thought that you thought I was just a friend, your student."

"I thought the same thing."

"The truth is, when you saved me from the Eraser blood lust, I thought that you were my hero. I fell in love with you on the spot, I was just so afraid that you wouldn't feel the same way." She hugged me tight, I could feel her heart beat, it was quick but slowing down. She was coming down from our first kiss. "I love you Felix."

"I love you too." Our lips found each other again, and we were both lost in the state of ecstasy. I don't know how long we stayed like that, all I do know is that I begged that it wouldn't end. In the end it did though, to both of our disappointments. It was getting pretty late and she had to go return to her room for the curfew. She walked silently over to my door, and opened it. Just before she left she looked back and smiled. She looked so peaceful, it was as if that grove in her eyes had consumed her whole being.

"Goodnight Felix." The door clicked shut behind her. I threw myself onto my bed, and let out the biggest sigh of my life. I had just told her that I loved her, not to mention the first make out session of my life. The world was spinning but I could have cared less, nothing else mattered to me. Old Man Locke could escape again and I wouldn't care. All I could feel was fire, the ghostly feeling of her lips on mine haunted me. Why didn't we just do this sooner? How in the world we were goin to explain this to Odin was beyond me, so I decided to think of a plan tomorrow. I didn't even change clothes, I just laid there in bed. Trying to cling to the fading bliss of Phoenix's presence. Why did it have to end? I closed my eyes and the world slowly faded into blackness.

* * *

I had intended to have Felix and Phoenix's relationship to develop at some point in the story, so I decided to do it now. I was trying to portray the fear of having your love rejected, how did I do? Sorry that it really isn't keeping with the theme of the story at this point, but I promise that things will get better soon.

As for Old Man Locke, this isn't the last that we will see of him. So I hope that you want more, because there is going to be plenty later on.

Anyway, school starts for me tomorrow, so I can't update as often as I'd like to. So please be patient with me. Don't forget to review and continue to read. TBC, so all in due time. (Now I mean it.)


	4. Chapter 4

Sorry for the wait! I blame school, but I guess that's what I get for having to many honors classes. My English class is basically turning me into a beta reader. :( I've read so many short stories that my head is going to explode! Annotate this, and read that, just give me a brake so I can write!

It's amazing how many death threats you can get from a bunch of fangirls. It's even more disturbing when you think about what they would do to you if they actually found you... especially when you're a boy... (gulps) Anyway, now that the truth is out and Felix and Phoenix are together, I can actually start to move on with the story. Hooray for plot development! If you read my other story, then what I am about to do will be familiar. Horrifically familiar, but none the less vital to the story. If you didn't then it may be confusing, but just keep reading.

On a more casual note, I hope that you all had a good start to the school year.

I own nothing! (Oh how I wish I did...)

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Chapter 4: More then just a Name

_I was walking down the hallway towards the laboratory, the lights on the ceilings clicked on with every step I took. The scientists were sitting at there computers punching in the daily minutia and test data_. _Each of them seemed to be staring blankly at the screen, not even giving any indication that they knew I was there. I didn't care, I just walked through the lab, passing by machines that were buzzing with activity. On my left were cabinets full of beakers and test tubes full of variously colored fluids, and on my right was a panel of buttons and lights that were the controls for the numerous testing rooms in the School. _

_At the other end of the room was a door that led to the specimen holding room, where the avians were stored. I morphed into my Eraser form after I soundlessly slipped through the door. My hands became padded and my fingers grew long as they turned into claws. My mind shut out the over whelming urge to kill whatever I saw next. The biggest bonus to being the first Eraser that worked was I had the strength of will to over come the blood lust. I remembered all the times when I wanted to become an Eraser but Jeb forbade it, he didn't want me to become another Locke. As a result I was able to consciously witness the transformation, it was surprisingly seamless, then again, it always was.  
_

_I walked towards a cage and crouched down to find my favorite little avian curled up in a ball at the back of her cage. Her white fluffy wings tucked close to her body, and her blond hair fell over her innocent face. I looked over a few cages, there was another avian, his eyes were a cloudy blue. He was blind, a failure. I remember hearing a while back about how they were working on giving the avians better vision, I was amazed, they almost never failed at anything. My gaze shifted back to the little avian in front of me. I never let the avians see me real face, to them I was a monster and I wanted to maintain that relationship. _

_I lifted my paw and let it pass through the bars of the cage. I paused, not knowing whether or not I should disturb it. I dismissed the thought immediately, it was a freak, a monster, doomed to die as it lived, in a cage. My claws barely touched it's wings, and the avian stirred. It opened it's eyes and brushed it's golden locks out of it's face. It would have jumped to the back of the cage, if the cage wasn't so small, instead, it pressed it's body against the back of the cage, and began to hyperventilate. It must have been terrifying, to see an Eraser right out side of your cage, not knowing whether or not you would live to see the lights turn on in the morning. I wasn't going to kill it, the scientists needed it after all._

_I smiled bearing my fangs at the same time, it tried to swat away my paw, but I grabbed it by the wrist and pulled it to the front of the cage. I could see my reflection in it's eyes. I felt it's other arm grab my neck, somehow the bars on the cage had disappeared. I released my grip on it's other wrist out of shock, but then it had both of it's hands around my neck and began squeezing. It was trying to strangle me. It's face changed from one of fear to one of anger. To me this was foreign, it was trying to fight for it's freedom. Was it really that foolish? I could snap its neck without a second thought.  
_

_Slowly it's began to smile, and it's grip on my throat seemed to tighten. Eventually, it began to hurt more and more. I glanced at its hands as best I could, they had morphed into paws. Eraser paws. It let go of my neck and threw me on to the floor, each of the other avians sprang out of there cages and held me down. I fought to get back to my feet but each of them seemed to have other worldly strength. The little blond one crawled onto my chest and grabbed my neck again, it began to throttle me like I was a toy, my head bouncing up and down, giving me a serious case of whiplash. _

_"What is your name? This isn't a nightmare!" It screamed at me in an almost demonic voice. I started to black out as the blood flow to my head was cut off. "What is your name?" It was taunting me, the other avians were laughing. It placed it's claws on my neck and started to press down. Everything went black when my neck finally gave out. "What is your name?" My lungs where on fire, crying out of the lack of oxygen. The pain faded, and I seemed to slip right into another dream.  
_

My eyes snapped open in sequence with my alarm clock. I was in bed, just the way that I had fallen asleep. I got out of bed and changed suits, they were all identical, but it was a force of habit. I ran my finger through my hair, as I stepped out of my room. What is my name? I'd had weird dreams in the past, but that was a perfect ten out of ten. I walked over to the break room and sat myself down in my armchair. I looked at my reflection in the mirror on the other side of the room, I looked like a wreck, almost like I hadn't had any sleep last night. Last night, it was the first time that I had kissed Phoenix, the first time I told her I loved her. My heart fluttered at the memory.

The door slid open and I composed myself just as Phoenix and Odin came in. Odin walked over to the billiards table that he claimed was his, an Phoenix sat on the couch next to my arm chair.

"What, no Inferno today?" she said with a devilish smile on her face. I shot the same look back at her and she giggled, ever so slightly embarrassed about what happened last night. From the way Odin was acting, he seemed completely oblivious to what happened, he also seemed to have cooled down from last night's break out.

"No not today. How's Hades doing?"

"He's doing alright, Jeb patched him up after he had Locke locked up again." She ran her hand over my back, lighting my skin on fire with each and every touch. I leaned in close to her.

"You didn't tell him?"

"No, he would kill both of us if he found out." I sat back down in my chair and let out a sigh. I got up and ran my fingers across her cheek as I walked towards the door. "Where are you going?" She asked inquisitively.

"I have to go see Jeb about something, I'll be right back." A lie. It wasn't my place to lie, especially to her. But I didn't want to make her worry. I hurried to the laboratory, racking my brain with questions. What is my name? It's Felix. Why would it be anything else? I was just about to go down the hall that led to the laboratory, when I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

The air grew seemed to grow bitterly cold around me, and for a second, I thought that I could see my breath. Something tapped my shoulder and I turned around to see nothing. Some thing seemed to be calling me down the hall. I took a step away from the lab and I could feel something pulling me towards the holding unit.

_Oh Felix, why don't you come and pay me a visit?_

Locke.

I walked down the hall, passing through countless security door. It seemed every time that I came here there was at least one more. I stopped in front of a massive door. I stepped onto the pressure pad, placed my hand on the scanner and had my retina scanned, and the tumblers in the door began to unlock. The door hissed as it slid open. I took two steps into the room and the door literally slammed shut behind me.

I was in the dark, well almost. There was a light bulb hanging from the ceiling, it was flickering almost to the point of a strobe light. The room almost looked like a castle dungeon. Locke sat in the center of the room, his wrists and ankles were in brand new chains. He sat in the center of the room, his book open in front of him on a blank page. He had a pen in his hand and a smile on his face. His Eraser fangs were showing, and his fingers were almost claws. He looked like a monster.

"What is it Locke?" I wasn't in the mood for this. I wasn't his biggest fan, frankly somewhere deep down, I was a little afraid of him. He was the only Eraser before me, and I could have easily wound up as him. Mad, and locked up in a cell, deep within the confines of the School.

"I was wondering if you had put any thought into our little conversation that we had last night?"

"No I haven't."

"Oh but there is something else on your mind then isn't there." He raised an eyebrow at me, knowing that he was right. "Come, come now. There is no point in trying to hide anything from me."

"It was a dream." I crossed my arms over my chest, and he picked up his book and placed it on his lap. He placed his pen on the page, and waited for me to continue. "I was visiting the avians, and the little blond one asked me what my name was. Then it told me that it wasn't a nightmare." He scribbled down everything word that I said like he was a stenographer. It's amazing that he can even read his own he was done he chuckled, not even attempting to hide it.

"What is your name? Now there's an interesting note." He stopped and stared at his book, flipping back through the pages. "It is interesting that you should dream such a dream, Felix. Do you know what it means?"

"No, why would I?"

"Of course you wouldn't. But everyone else does." He stopped again. "Have you ever noticed how odd of names we Erasers have? There is a reason. When a person would become an Eraser, they are given a name from mythology. I created this rule to help them transition, to lose themselves in the transformation. To brake down their old identity, so that they can be more malleable, so that we could raise them into the blood craving beasts that they are!" He flipped back to the page where he had written down the notes on my dream. "But you, Felix... You are different. You have a regular name, and yet, how do you know that that is indeed your true name?"

"Because, I was created. Everyone else was already a person."

"No, remember what we talked about last night. Erasers are made from people. You are assuming that Jeb created you, as an eight year old boy. No Felix, you were before, but your past eludes you."

"If I did, then why don't I remember anything? That's because I was created. You're lying to me Locke."

"Am I Felix? Do I have any reason to lie to you? Have I ever given you a reason to distrust me?" He looked back up at me and smiled. I wouldn't trust him no matter what he said. He was insane. A genius, but insane none the less. I turned away from him and took a step towards the door, and stopped. I didn't look back, I didn't want to see his black soulless eyes staring at me. "Think over what I've told you Felix. In time, you will except the fact that I'm right. There is more to you then you could possibly imagine." I opened the door and slammed it behind me.

I wondered my way towards the laboratory, I had to talk to Jeb about what Locke had said. It was the only way that I could put my mind at ease. I couldn't tell anyone else what happened, talking to Locke was strictly taboo. That and I didn't want Phoenix to worry about me. Jeb was the only one that could make sense out of Locke's ramblings anyway. I passed through the door to the laboratory door to find Jeb and some scientists hovering over an unconscious avian.

"The thing passed out because of exhaustion. I'm surprised it held out as long as it did. What do you make of it Jeb?" Said one of the scientists.

"I wouldn't have expected any less. Not with all of the work that we've put into them." Jeb looked up and saw me. He smiled, got up and took off his gloves.

"Jeb, I have a few questions for you."

"Whatever could they be Felix?" I put my thumbs in my pockets and sighed.

"I need to talk to you in private." Jeb glanced at one of the scientists and one by one, they got up and left the room.

"Now you were saying?"

"I need to talk to you about names."

* * *

Ah yes. The meaning behind your name. I've been wanting to play that card for a while (shuffles deck of literary devices while laughing maniacally). Plus let's not forget the dreams, you gotta love those crazy dreams.

Anyway, once again, I apologize for the lateness of this update. Darn school. But anyway, it's good to be back. Please continue to read, and review. TBC, so all in due time. (Unfortunately)


	5. Chapter 5

Oh how I hate school. Oh how I love the internet and all of its mind numbing goodness. Oh how I love to have my precious organs in my body. (nervously checks behind self before continuing) I hope you enjoy this little bit of plot development in all of its mysterious and foreshadowing awesomeness. Thank you to all of my loyal readers for putting up with my inconsistent updates, not to mention my tendency to end the chapters at a cliffhanger. Oh well. Enjoy!

I own nothing!

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Chapter 5: A New Mission

"Names?" Jeb said with a puzzled look on his face. It was almost as if he never had thought that I would bring up the subject. He let out a slight sigh. "Locke told you didn't he?" I didn't respond. He turned around and clenched his fists, then turned back to me. "What did he say, tell me everything." He sounded slightly cold, as if he didn't want to talk.

"He was rambling on about how when you create an Eraser, you give the person a new name."

"That's correct. We do that to help give them a new identity seeing as how that they can never have their old life back. When they become an Eraser, we have to erase everything about their past existence. As far as the government is concerned none of us even exist." He stopped and looked me in the eye, then motioned with his hand so I could continue.

"He asked me about a dream that I had." Jeb shot me a strange look. I couldn't tell what it was that I saw in his eyes. It almost looked like panic.

"What happened in it?" His voice was normal though, no sign of any emotion. Jeb had always been hard to read.

"I was visiting the avians, and the little blond one strangled me. It asked me what my name was and told me that it wasn't a nightmare." He didn't move. No response. I could almost hear the metaphorical gears in his head grinding, trying to come up with an answer."Does it even mean anything?"

"No, no it doesn't. Just a dream. I'm curious as to how Locke reacted when you told him these things."

"He jotted down a few things in his book. He didn't say much. He just kept talking about how Erasers where originally people, he said that I used to exist before you made me."

"And did you believe him?" He continued to stand there looking me right in the eyes. Examining me, judging my reactions. It was almost as if he was interrogating me.

"No. Why would I believe the ramblings of a deranged madman?" Jeb gave me a small grin and turned away walking over to the avian on the table. It was the little blond one. its eyes were closed, and its wings were stretched out on the table. It had a look of fear on its face, as if it was having a nightmare, but a glow of innocence radiated of off it. How sad, so young, not knowing the evils of the world. And yet, it is one of those many evils, ironic. How tragically ironic. I walked over to the table and stood next to Jeb.

"You said that the little one strangled you. How did that happen?"

"The bars on its cage disappeared and it placed its hands around my neck. Then they began to morph into Eraser paws." Now that I thought about it, I was slightly disturbed by the recollection. Hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and I could feel the ghostly presence of the paws around my throat. One of my hands rubbed my throat and I gulped.

"Felix, go back to the break room. Don't tell anyone about the dream or your confrontation with Locke." I walked towards the door and looked back at the avian. Part of me wanted to feel pity for it, but I looked away and passed through the door into the empty hall.

I was making my way back to the break room when I ran into Hades. He was wearing a new suit, and I could tell by the way he walked that he was sore from his run in with Locke. Erasers heal fast, but Hades was pretty messed up from last night. His bright blue eyes were devilishly deceptive, he was a cold blooded killer when he wanted to be, but he also had a more sensitive side to him.

"So it looks like Odin didn't chew you out. I'm surprised that your still alive." He smiled and chuckled a little. I smirked back at him.

"I'm as amazed as you are. Hows your back?"

"Sore, but they stitched me up nice and good. I look like a mummy underneath the suit, you should see it."

"How's the rest of the pack though, did any of the others get hurt?"

"Nah, they're just a little shaken that I ran into Old Man Locke, and he kicked me to the to the curb. Frankly I'm surprised how well he fought. But he's been here so long, I guarantee you that he knows more about this place then Jeb." He looked at his watch and sighed. "I gotta go, need to talk to the pack about our next assignment."

"Escort? Extermination?" There were a variety of missions that we could be sent on. Some were exciting, especially if we had to go somewhere exotic or interesting like Venice or the Amazon. Itex had facilities all over the world, and some of them were in unthinkable locations.

"Transfer. We're going to the Institute in New York. Jeb says that we need to guard the facility while they update their data banks and "erase" failures." Others, were not so glamorous. Specifically transfers. They send you to another facility for a change of staff, and some other excuse which is usually sub par. But at least he was going to be working at the Institute, it was one of the most important facilities because it was basically a storage bank for data and failed experiments. Not to mention that it held one of the largest storage units ever designed for an Itex facility. Who knows what was contained in those cages. My mind shuddered at the thought.

"Enjoy your trip, I'll try to hold the fort down while you're gone." I walked away first, giving a quick wave as I started on my way to the break room. I heard him chuckle and start to walk the other way. I was going to miss him, he was always kind to me, and at least he wasn't as blood thirsty as the rest of the breed.

I finally arrived at the break room, Odin was still at the pool table, trying to beat his personal record, Phoenix was sitting in my chair and reading the _Inferno. _She looked up at me and a silly little grin spread on her face, Odin didn't pay any attention to my presence. I walked over to my chair and crouched down behind it, putting my hands on Phoenix's shoulders. She had just start, Dante hadn't even met Virgil yet.

"Did Jeb say anything?" Odin said from behind me. I turned my head to find him, leaning over the table ready to make a shot, he was staring at me critically. I blinked and he made the shot, sinking the eight ball. He got up and put his pool stick on the rack. I got up and tapped Phoenix on the shoulder, she closed the book and turned to face me.

"No, but I ran into Hades on my way back. Beta pack has been transferred to the Institute."

"Aw man, lucky!" Phoenix complained. She had never been to New York, although she had always wanted to go.

"New York huh? Not bad, could have been worse." Odin said as he made his way over to the couch that sat opposite of my chair. "Felix, how long has it been since they sent you on a mission?"

"Too long, I'm sure that they'll have something for me to do really soon." It had been a long time since I had been on a mission. I was starting to suffer from cabin fever, at times I would find myself staring at the designs on the carpet, as if I didn't have anything else to do. The door clicked open and in came Jeb. I stepped out from behind the chair and stood up straight.

"Felix Phoenix, pack your bags." The clouds began to part, and in my mind the angels started to sing. "The two of you are on assignment."

"Where are we going?" Phoenix asked, getting up from the chair. I could hear the eagerness in her voice, she was obviously excited. I was having a little trouble containing myself, after all it was my first mission in a long time, and better yet, it was a mission with Phoenix. Jeb looked at me with a completely straight face and cleared his throat before continuing.

"Paris." My eyes instantly shot over to Phoenix to see her reaction. I'm surprised that her jaw didn't drop, but instead her eyes opened wide up, and the biggest smile I'd ever seen came over her face.

"As in France, Paris, France?" She asked, ready to race for the door at the drop of a hat.

"Yes, the two of you will be escorting me on a very important mission. We leave later today, so hurry up and pack." He turned around and left the room in an almost awkward silence. After a few moments Odin shifted his gaze to the two of us and left himself grin slightly.

"Well what are you two waiting for? He said that you were leaving later today, hurry up and pack!" I shot a glance at Phoenix and smiled. She shot me the same look and gave me the same smile. We bolted for the door at the same time time and nearly crashed into each other as I beat her to the door. We scrambled for the handle and raced each other down the hallway, I could hear Odin let out a laugh when he thought that we were out of ear shot. Our footsteps echoed down the vacant halls, mixing in with our laughter. Yeah we were excited, who wouldn't be? We were going to Paris!

We reached the Alpha pack sub-sector and headed for our rooms. Her door slammed behind her, but mine stayed open. I opened my closet and took out a dusty suit case, I guess that goes to show how often I used it. I took a few of the identical suits off of the hangers and folded then neatly so that they would fit in. I opened up a drawer in my bedside table and pulled out a passport. In it was a fake ID that they had made for each of us, technically I didn't exist, and Itex liked to keep it that way. I opened it up to see a picture of me in one of my suits. It said that my name was Vincent Alighieri. A comupter had chosen the first name, I chose the last.

I flipped through the rest of the pages, looking back at the stamps of places that I had been to. All kinds of memories were dusted off as I began to remember the good times and the bad times. I smiled and sighed. It all seemed like so much, and yet it really wasn't. But I was interrupted by a tap on my door. I looked at the person standing in the door, and my smile vanished instantly. Alex was leaning up against my open door, his arms crossed over his chest, with a sinister grin on his face. He stood up and took a step into my room. I turned away and continued to pack.

"Word has it that you got a mission to Paris. Is it true?" He raised an eyebrow curiously.

"Yeah, I'll buy you a snow globe if you leave." Needless to say, we weren't the best of friends. You couldn't really call us rivals either, considering that a rivalry usually meant a deep underlying friendship based on jealousy. But this was not a rivalry, no we were enemies. I'm not sure either of us understood why, but for some reason, we never liked each other. If anything, he was my polar opposite. I considered myself refined and restrained. He was an animal that let the blood lust of the transformation corrupt him, and his personality was a farm for ice.

"Did Jeb say why?" He didn't even care, he wasn't even looking at me, but rather the painting I had on the wall above my bed.

"No, and it's none of your concern Alex. Don't you have to go and celebrate over your latest triumph?"

"Don't you have to go bury your face in a book?"

"Bite me." That phrase took on a whole new meaning when you were an Eraser. Normal people don't have fangs that can rip through flesh like a hot knife through butter. I got up from my bed and looked him dead in the eyes, starting a mock staring contest. Beyond the strands of long dark brown hair, I could see me reflection in his ice cold eyes. It didn't take much to see the malice that lay just behind his eye lids. He broke the stare first and glanced again at the painting above my bed. "Well Felix, I'll leave you to your packing." He took a step back turned away heading for the open door. "Best of luck in Paris." After I was sure he was well out of ear shot I resumed packing my suit case.

"Oh I just might Alex, I just might."

* * *

Well Felix and Phoenix are going to Paris, the City of Love. Sounds like things couldn't be going any better. But you know me... I always have some way that I can screw it up. I never said that I will. But let's just say that we may run into a few familiar faces. A few faces that even I didn't anticipate would show up. I'll end on that note to let you chew that over until I update again. Oh the joys of ending on a cliffhanger to leave the reader with a sense of suspense. :) Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


	6. Chapter 6

OK, so I admit I may be a little disturbed. But you can't blame me for taking advantage of the plot holes that Patterson left behind. Besides, writing back story is so much fun. Especially when you take the truth and twist it into knots to create unforeseen plot twists. (evil laughs to self) It's almost like I have a machine that dispenses aces out of my sleeves. It's too much fun... for me. You on the other hand, have to wait until I find the time to update. Ah life is good when you're the author.

Anyway, Felix and Phoenix are on their way to Paris. And for those of you that thought about Phineas and Ferb after you read that, you have some serious issues. My sister forced me to watch that and I couldn't get The City of Love song out of my head for the rest of the day.

Fang: Besides, we all know that the show is about Perry.

Me: :O Did you just say that you watch Phineas and Ferb?

Fang: It was either that or the Nudge Channel. I'll take Phineas and Ferb any day. Besides don't listen to me, keep writing you madman! *makes a fist and pops his knuckles*

Me: *gulps* Fine, fine! No need to get all defensive! Enjoy the chapter.

I own nothing!

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Chapter 6: The Journey of a Thousand Miles

After my little confrontation with Alex, I finished packing my suit case. when I closed it and locked it I heard yet another tap on my door. Phoenix was in my door this time with a multitude of cases cluttered around her feet. I never understood how in the world she was able to pack so quickly for a mission. That, and how much she would pack. I looked at the various cases she had packed then at the one that I had, I smiled at her. She smiled back, crossed her arms and tilted her head slightly to the side.

"You sure that you have enough luggage Felix?" She said, taking a few steps into my room. She sat down on my bed and looked at the painting. I'd had the painting for the longest time and yet, I was the only one that never seemed to pay any attention to it.

"I have enough to get by. You're packing skills would make a Boyscout envious." She looked at me weirdly. I guess that wasn't the best possible reference I could have made.

"Well you never know what could happen on a mission. You have to be prepared for anything." I'll admit I was one for following the rules, but Phoenix was always prepared for anything. One thing I would never admit is that her preparedness had saved my life a time or two. But that's a story for another time and another place.

The intercom in the corner of my room screeched to life, and Jeb's voice filled my room.

"Felix, Phoenix. The two of you are to report to the garage with your luggage in one hour. So finish your packing if you aren't done already and say your goodbyes." The room went silent. I motioned for the door, taking my suit case in one hand. Phoenix got up and took two of her suitcases, I took the third in my free hand and we headed for the break room to say goodbye to Odin. We found him sitting on the couch with his face buried in a newspaper. He was so absorbed by the article he was reading that he didn't pay attention to us as we came in. Phoenix let a wicked grin grow on her face. She silently crept up to Odin, hiding behind the paper.

"HEY ODIN!" She yelled so suddenly that it even startled me. Odin on the other hand acted as if he was being shot at. When I got a good look at his face I broke out in laughter, so did Phoenix. His eyes were wide, his breathing was fast and uneven, and you could see his racing pulse in his throat.

"What the hell was that for?" His face started to turn red out of anger and embarrassment. He steadied himself and pulled the paper taught, trying to find his place on the page. "You probably scared a few years off of my life." Thank goodness that Phoenix was the one that scared him, if it was anyone else, odds are that he would have ripped their head off. He let out a heavy sigh and folded up the paper, unable to fully recover from the shock. Phoenix crouched down and gave him a bear hug. "Be safe OK." He had always been protective of his little sister, she was his only family, the only one that knew about their past in its entirety. I grinned smugly at the scene, it was straight out of a book.

"You've got nothing to worry about, Felix will protect me." She ended the hug and walked back over to shifter his gaze to look me in the eyes. He gave me a stare that said all he wanted to say. It was his copyrighted 'If one hair on her head gets touched I'll kill you' look, no one had ever been able to think of a better name. "Bye Odin, we'll both miss you."

"Take care, I'll hold down the fort while the two of you are gone." He waved goodbye to us and pulled up the newspaper. We picked up our bags and headed towards the garage. I could see the excitement on her face. Phoenix always loved to travel, and neither of us had ever been to Paris, so this was entirely new to the both of us.

_Enjoy your little trip Felix, I'll be awaiting your return._

Locke's voice echoed in my mind. So it really was his voice. He had the ability to project his thoughts into others. So if he could put thoughts into people's minds, did that mean that he could also read people's minds? As for how he was able to do it, my guess was that it was a mutation that occurred because of the experiments he subjected himself to. My expression shifted from excitement to worried and Phoenix took notice.

"You alright?" I shook my head, realizing that I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. "Is there something on your mind?" She was always so considerate, always looking out for me. I guess that was her way of thanking me for being so protective of her, although my safety was relative to her safety. I dismissed the thought of Odin wringing my neck quickly.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just thinking about how exciting Paris is going to be." I grinned sheepishly. I hated not telling her the truth, but truth is, I didn't want her to worry about me. We arrived at the garage to find a few scientists loading a bunch of suit cases in a black limo. We handed the cases to the scientists and Jeb stepped out form behind the limo.

"Ah good you're finally here. We can leave ahead of schedule." He nodded at one of the scientists who nodded back after he finished loading the rest of the luggage. "Are the two of you ready to leave?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." phoenix said beating me to the punch. Jeb climbed into the front of the limo, and the two of us sat near the back. How in the world Itex had the money to afford everything from all of their questionable experiments to limousines for high ranking employees was beyond me. It's as if the money just materializes into the company's budget.

The limo pulled out onto the dirt road that led to the School, the hot desert sun reflected off of the spotless black painted that covered the limo from end to end. The windows were tinted but the light was so bright that it was still coming through, lighting up the inside of the cabin. I was sitting next to Phoenix in the back compartment. The window separating the front from the back was closed. My hand crawled its way towards her's and she looked at me with her bright green eyes. It was amazing but the sunlight seemed too make her eyes even warmer and more inviting. She smiled shyly and rested her head on my shoulder. Her long brown hair cascaded down my arm. I wrapped it around her and pulled her close to me so she was leaning on me completely. She let out a small sigh, and closed her eyes braking the spell that I had fallen under. I rested my head on hers and let out the same small sigh.

She flipped her hand over and laced her fingers with mine. Her hand was unbelievably soft compared to mine, which was all rough and calloused. I could hear her breathing and feel her heart beat, I lightly squeezed my hand in sync with her heart beat. The smile on her face widened, and she squeezed asking me to stop. Her other arm wrapped around my waist and as impossible as it seemed, she pulled me closer to her. I lifted my head up, and brushed her hair out of her face. Her eyes opened up and I was instantly under her hypnotic spell, how she was able to do it, I don't know, and frankly, I didn't care.

"What are you doing?" She said quietly.

"This." I leaned forward and kissed her, and she kissed me back. I wasn't sure how long the kiss lasted because my sense of time was distracted by the fact that her lips on on mine. Unfortunately it did end out of the need for air, she pulled me closer still to her and I could feel her heart racing.

"I love you so much." She mumbled with her face pressed against my chest.

"I love you too." I whispered back. I ran my fingers through her silky hair, and she looked me in the eyes. This time she seemed to fall under my spell. I kissed her again, her hands and lips begging me not to end it. I reluctantly ended the kiss, I didn't know if Jeb could see back here. She caught on quickly and we broke the embrace that we had created unknowingly.

_All good things must come to an end Felix, don't get too comfortable._

Locke? But how? I was clearly not in the School, so either he is far more powerful then I thought, or I'm going completely insane. The fact that he could even read minds was incredulous, but the creepy part was that he had been reading my mind for the past few minutes. Apparently the same look as earlier came over my face, and this time Phoenix could tell it was something serious. She put her hand on my back and started rubbing in a circular motion, trying to comfort me. How could she do that when she didn't even know what was on my mind? I smiled and turned my head to look at her, she smiled and pushed my head down.

"Lean forward, just relax." She said calmly. I chuckled softly, and let her continue rubbing my back.

Somewhere along the line, she stopped rubbing my back and fell asleep, I sat up and her head was resting in my lap. Her breathing soft and steady, and my fingers ran through her hair.

We arrived at the airport shortly after that. When we arrived, we had some one to take our bags, Jeb led me and Phoenix through the airport, our tickets had been preordered, and we headed for the gate. When we got to the security gate, Jeb flashed his passport and walked through the metal detector with out any hassle, Phoenix followed him. For some reason I was always paranoid that I was going to get caught by security and detained on the spot, although Jeb was with me this time so I wasn't to worry about. He always seemed to be able to talk his way out of any trouble.

I showed the guard my passport and passed through the metal detector without any hassle. Jeb motioned for us to continue and we arrived at the gate to our plane. Jeb handed the stewardess our tickets and we walked clear up to the first class section. The seats were the same color as my chair back in the break room, oddly enough it felt just the same way too. I buckled myself in and sank into the chair feeling right at home. Phoenix sat in the chair next to me, and Jeb sat at the front of the cabin, right in front of the television. I glanced at Phoenix to see her grinning with anticipation.

"You ready for this?" I asked her. She looked and me and nodded. I started to glance around irregularly, as if I had just lost something important. She looked at me strangely.

"What's going on?" She had no idea what in the world I was doing.

"What? No complementary peanuts?"

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Well they're on their way. I hope that I have you on the edge of your seat, because what happens in Paris... ends up affecting the rest of the story. So be prepared for some faces, new and old, I guarantee you that you will never see them coming.

Fang: They will see it coming now that you told them.

Me: OK, you know what? Not another word out of you, or so help me, I'll throw you out of the bunker and let the fangirls have their way with you!

Fang: You wouldn't dare!

Me: Would I? You just better watch yourself you Phineas and Ferb watcher.

Fang: I never said that I did!

Me: You implied it, besides how am I supposed to keep writing if I'm arguing with you?

Fang:...

Me: That's right, now leave me to my madness.

All right, that was weird. But anyway, please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.

P.S. Many thanks to **AmyQueen95 **for even thinking of the Phineas and Ferb reference. :)


	7. Chapter 7

Well I figure that it was about time that they arrive in Paris. This is going to be good, especially if you've read my other story. If you did, tape your jaw shut so that it wont fall open, because you might not be able to close it after this chapter. Hahaha! Anyway, we also get to figure out what in the blazes the mission is. Expect more missions in the future, but each of them will be very different.

I own nothing!

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Chapter 7: You Can't Handle It

We arrived in Paris in a timely fashion, a cab was waiting to take us to our hotel. While we were on the plane Jeb had told us that we would be escorting him to a very important meeting.

One would think that going to Paris would be exciting. I thought that it would be exciting. But this was no vacation. No. I was on assignment, that means no sight seeing, no checking out the local wares, I was on duty was unless told otherwise. Simply fantastic. Escort duty was basically the equivalent of being a bodyguard, and everywhere that Jeb went, me and Phoenix had to follow. Although it wasn't as bad as I first thought it would, Jeb seemed relaxed the whole time, it made me wonder why he brought us. He had been unusually sketchy on the parameters of this mission, making me question how important our being there was. All of my doubts were scatted to the wind when we arrived at our hotel.

The lobby was full of people wearing the same suit. An Eraser suit. Most of the people I had seen at least once, a few were good acquaintances, and some I had never seen before.

"You two are off duty, as you can see, I am in good hands." Jeb said to the both of us, with his hand on my shoulder. Before I could reply a man in a black suit walked up to Jeb and and shook his hand. He had pitch black hair that was slicked back, and a thick goutee. he had these silver eyes that shined like the moon. "It's been awhile hasn't it Weiss?" The man snickered.

"Yes it has been Jeb. But please, call me Mr. Chairman. I have to keep up appearances around here." So he was The Chairman, one of the people on the Itex Board of Directors. "Marian has been waiting to see you again, she's in the conference room, you should bring these two with you." I waited for Jeb to respond, he motioned that we were to follow him. The Chairman led us to a room full of Itex executives and sponsors. A woman stood up and walked over to us.

"Good to see you again Jeb, how are the avians?"

"They're coming along as well as we had anticipated." Jeb looked over at The Chairman. "Which is very good in your case, Weiss." The Chairman let out a smug grin, but no more. "As for the Erasers, I've brought my finest. This is Phoenix." But he failed to mention me, why didn't he mention me? "Now I'm sure that you have a lot to tell me about the other facilities." Jeb and the woman took a few steps away, but Jeb stopped and looked back. "Remember, you are off duty. Weiss, why don't you introduce them to your son?" The Chairman nodded at Jeb and started walking towards another room. He waved his hand, signaling us to follow.

After we passed through a door we were in a room that resembled the break room back in the School. There were three people, two were on the couch, and a child was on the floor playing with blocks. The Chairman smiled.

"Son, we have some people that we would like you to meet. A boy that looked about twelve got up from the couch. He had snow white hair and the same silver eyes as The Chairman, he had a book in his hands. "These are some of the Erasers form Alpha pack, the ones that you have been hearing so much about." A pager in the Chairman's coat pocket started to beep. When he read the message his smile disappeared. "My apologies, but I must be on my way." He paced out of the room quickly. My gaze fell back on the silver eyed boy, his gaze was hypnotic and piercing, but a grin grew on his face.

"The name is Isaac, it's a pleasure to meet you." He actually bowed for the both of us. Phoenix shot me a look that was screaming awkward, people don't bow for us every day like we're royalty. "Over there on the couch is Dylan, and the infant is Ari." Dylan was staring off into space, he looked like he was about fifteen, and Ari couldn't have been more then three or four. We walked over and sat down on a couch facing the one that Isaac and Dylan were on. Isaac closed the book he was reading and set it on the coffee table in front of him. He was reading _Hamlet_.

"That's quite a read." I was astonished, but then again, he was The Chairman's son, I wouldn't have expected any less. Dylan who all this time had been staring off into space suddenly sprung to life as if he was a robot.

"Isaac here is a serious devout of literature. There isn't a book in the world he hasn't read at least once." He said without looking at any one, he was still staring off into space, it was haunting in a way. Phoenix had preoccupied herself with Ari, who was spelling out small words with the blocks.

"Dylan you need to stop staring off into space, you'll never find the answers you're looking for in the void." Isaac said, propping his feet on the coffee table. "You must forgive my friend, he's never been much of the social type." He ran his fingers through his hair then crossed his arms over his chest. He looked at me and then at Phoenix. "You two are Erasers aren't you? From Alpha pack? I've heard many things about you and your kind." He raised an eyebrow, and grinned slightly. "Your reputation precedes you."

"You're a very formal child aren't you? Of course you are The Chairman's son, what about you Dylan. What is your connection to Itex?" I was trying to get him to respond, he was impossible to read if I couldn't get him to act.

"I'm here with one of Itex's sponsors, have you ever heard of Dr. Hans Gunther-Hagen? He's my guardian." He lifted his head and looked at me. "I understand that you are here with Mr. Batchelder. I surprised he hasn't come to see his son yet." His son? Jeb has a son? Dylan could see the confusion in my eyes, and nodded at little Ari. Ari is Jeb's son? Why didn't he ever tell me that he had a son? Dylan let out a small chuckle. "He never told you did he. You would be surprised what information that they keep from us. They tell us that we are important, but to them, we are just part of the equation."

"That's enough Dylan, let him figure the truth out for himself. How is he supposed to learn if you give him all of the answers?"

"What do you mean?" Phoenix said. She had concern in her eyes, she had been listening the entire time and was in as much shock as I was. How was it possible that these two knew more then we did? She looked at me confused, Ari was tugging on one of her hands trying to get her attention. She was reading me through my eyes, trying to find an answer that wasn't there. "Felix, what are you going to do?" I closed my eyes and let out a heavy sigh.

"I'll talk to Jeb the next time I see him, I'll make sure that I get the truth out of him."

"I'm sorry that we had to be the ones to give you the truth, sometimes I wish that I never knew the truth. Knowledge is both a blessing and a curse. I suppose that the saying is true, ignorance is bliss." Isaac said with his eyes closed. "To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them? To die: to sleep; no more! And by a sleep to say we end the heartache and thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to... 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished! To die, to sleep! To sleep, perchance to dream: aye, there's the rub! For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause." Phoenix had a hard time keeping her mouth close, I was simply amazed that he could remember all of that word for word. Dylan started to chuckle, shaking his head back and forth.

"Did you just read that Isaac?" He opened one eye and smiled. Isaac did the same.

"But of course. I was simply testing my memory." Phoenix glanced at me so that she could see my reaction. I tried as hard as I could to keep a straight face. Every second I was with Isaac and Dylan, I was amazed at how much they knew, and how well they were versed in showed me how little I really knew, not just about Itex, but the world.

"How do you know so much?" I finally asked, not able to take another intellectual blow. Phoenix knew I was taking care of the situation and returned her attention to little Ari, but I knew she was still listening. Isaac lifted his head and looked me in the eyes intently. I couldn't read him, instead I saw my reflection. He sighed, uncrossed his arms and stood up.

"Dylan you stay here, Felix, I want to show you something." He walked out of the room and back into the lobby. It was as if the Erasers had never been there, the lobby was empty. He walked over to the elevator and stepped inside. I followed, he pressed the button for the top floor, when we got off he made his way down a series of halls and came to dead end. or at least it was supposed to be, there was a locked door that led to roof. He gripped the door handle tightly and ripped it off of the door. Needless to say, I was shocked, but he continued on his way up the stair.

When we got to the roof he took a few steps so that he was in front of me. He hung his head low, and let out a heavy sigh. He turned around and gave me a serious look.

"Felix... the following conversation never happened, and I never showed you anything. Is that understood?" I nodded in acquiescence, looking at him dead on. "I know that you're wondering how me and Dylan know so much about the internal workings of Itex. I can't tell you everything, but what I can tell you is of the utmost importance. I owe all of my knowledge to the simple fact that I am my father's son. Being a decedent of some one on the Board of Director has its perks, but that isn't the point that I'm trying to make.

"You know about the avians right? The experiments that have wings growing out of their backs? The records say that they are ninety-eight percent human, and two percent bird. You are an Eraser, the ratio is the same for you except you have the DNA of a wolf in you. From my understanding, your kind looks down on the avians, as if they are sub human, monsters if you will. What if I told you that they had plans for these avians?" I didn't respond. "From what I have learned, they plan to use the avians as a way to prevent an impending apocalypse. As for the cause of the apocalypse, or what form it will take, I do not know.

"What I do know is that they don't plan on ending the research on them anytime soon. As a matter of fact, they intend to perfect them, create a new breed of monsters to serve their whims and dark agendas."

"Are you calling me a monster? A pawn?"

"I would never call a man of your character anything that he wasn't. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't call you anything that I wasn't either." Wait, he just called himself a monster.

"What do mean Isaac? What are you getting at?" There was a pause and an awkward silence.

"Do you really want to know, because what I can show you will affect the rest of your existence?"

"Yes."

"Very well." He closed his eyes and took a step back. He took of his jacket to reveal a white tank top. He shrugged his shoulders and a pair of wings spread out to their full length. They were snow white and the tips of his wings were blood red. He looked like an angel. I couldn't believe my eyes. I blinked in disbelief as if my eyes had just lied to me. I blinked again and again, but every time they opened back up, there were his wings.

"You're an avian." I muttered incredulously. He opened his eyes back up, he wasn't smiling, but you couldn't say that he was frowning either.

"So is Dylan. We are the result of decades of research, and Itex has used us to test the effects of avian DNA. Of course my father has told me that they are a gift. That they make me unique from the rest of the world. He was right, horrifically right. I will never be privileged with a normal life, and the knowledge that I bear is a curse. You see Felix, you have been told your whole life that avians were freaks, monsters created by the same men of genius that created you and your kind. We are monsters, and so are you. You can't believe everything that they tell you Felix, you have to find out the truth for yourself, that is what me and Dylan are trying to do. Only the truth will bring peace to our lives." I stood there and morphed into my Eraser form. "Are you going to kill me?"

"No, I want to know the truth." He turned away from me and walked over to the edge of the roof.

"You can't handle it, and neither can I." He jumped into the air and soared away.

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Oh yeah, I went there. The truth starts to come out and I threw in a bunch of characters into the mix as well. Some of them you may remember from my other story, and it wont be the last time that we see them either. I'm so evil. Trust me it will only get better from this point out, now that the gears are starting to turn, momentum is going to pick up very fast. Although, I'm not going to take them out of Paris just yet. I have something special in store for Felix and Phoenix. But I'll let you stew over what it could possibly be. But until then, please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


	8. Chapter 8

I've decided to be a cruel and twisted madman for this chapter and make you all wait to find out what I have planned for everyone's favorite Eraser couple. Instead I thought that I'd give us an insight into the mind of the most deranged character that I have ever created. So if you've been dieing to know what in the world that Old Man Locke has been writing in that book of his, here's your chance to read a bit of it. It is different from my other chapters because it is from Locke's POV, but it helps provide a lot of back story that is vital to your understanding of the plot.

I own nothing!

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This particular chapter is dedicated to the memory of Brandon Brusewitz

A friend, gone, but not forgotten...

Chapter 8: The Book of Locke part 1

_Through out my life I have been cursed with the same philosophical questions that have plagued human kind since the beginning. Many over the eons have dared to answer the biggest questions in the universe. Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? Or the most perplexing of all and ironically the simplest. Why? And so like so many others before me, I've dedicated my life to finding the answers to these questions. Although it has driven me into a questionable field of research, I can say that I have never been closer to finding the answers that I seek. _

_My colleagues think that my methods are unorthodox and the lack of ethics brings rise to an unhealthy amount of controversy. As a result, my work and all those connected to it have been wiped from the records of the national government. I no longer exist. I've "erased" all evidence of my work from the public eye. Now I can continue my work uninterrupted. My work has brought me to a company called Itex, they have made me the head of a secret project about recombinant DNA. They've also seen fit to give me a position on their Board of Directors. They want me to use this project to create a future where people will be able to survive the impending doom that humanity is certain to bring upon itself, by any means necessary. No matter the cost, no matter the loss, no matter how unethical or immoral it may be, they will support me. It's good to know that they have given me a blank check, because I intend to use and abuse this opportunity._

_What I intend to do is change the human character. If we are to survive, we need to adapt. And quite frankly the human body is not well fitted for adaptation in the immediate sense. Nor is the human mind, the psyche of the average person is considerably fragile, and so I intend to help the process of evolution along its way. After all what is evolution but rapid adaptation?_

_Of course my choice of method is what has caused my work to be so confidential. Many of my original experiments have involved the use of grown human test subjects. When the experiments would be preformed, the subjects body's and mind's would not take so well to having various kinds of animal DNA grafted into their very being. The change could be described as shocking, not only would their minds be unable to compensate for the sudden change in body structure, but the body would also give out due to failure of one or more vital organs. This has been most disturbing to me because, not only am I unable to keep the subjects alive, but I've also learned that only certain types of DNA will be accepted by the human genome. I chose not to mention those whose body's have rejected the new DNA. The side effects that have befallen those select few, are beyond monstrous. They will live the rest of their lives in pain, not that they should be among the living much longer. _

_Is it wrong that I am subjecting so many souls to these experiments? They willingly volunteer to sacrifice their lives for my directive. I'm trying to save the lives of the countless masses, and yet, the longer I spend trying to find the solution, the more lives I ruin and destroy. Am I really on my way towards finding the answers that I set out to find so long ago? Or am I lost in my work, too focused on the here and now? Have I become a destroyer of life, one of the very things that I am supposed to protect life? I'm afraid that I have, and that I'm losing myself. Losing myself. Like how I lost my identity when my work was driven out of the public eye. I said that I "erased" everything. Oh how I wish that I could erase all of my problems, to wipe them from the face of existence. It would make my work so much easier, to send all of my countless failures into a void. The ability to erase, to do away with. What man would give to have this ability? What would man be willing to sacrifice? Whatever the cost, I'm certain that it would be one that would influence the rest of that person's life, and not for the better._

_How would you be able to deal with the guilt, the knowledge, that you are responsible for a void in the world. The same thing may apply to murderers. They are responsible for the void in life, they create the void. Are they the one's with the power to erase? They kill, they end lives. I end lives, although, I'm no murderer. When a life ends because of my influences, they don't just die. They are destroyed, mentally and physically. When a person is murdered, the media catches wind and people remorse. When one of my experiments dies, nobody mourns, nobody cares, nobody is there to immortalize their memory. They are gone, forever. They are the ones who are "erased". Is this the power to erase? One of the things I have spent my hole life searching for? The only answer is the truth, and oh how truth eludes my every move. I must have these answers no matter the cost, even to myself. _

_I've found a combination of DNA that works. Over ninety percent of the human genome is absolutely worthless, and so all I need to do is make sure that I don't change any of the ten percent that matters. The problem that I've had before hand is that I didn't know how much DNA to add to my test subjects. I've come to a simple answer. Two percent. If I can alter two percent of my test subject's DNA, then they will be able to cope with the sudden change, both mentally and physically. What I've also observed is that the younger the subjects are, the better their body's are able to cope. This has brought me to the question of whether or not I will begin experimenting on infants. am I willing to create life knowing that it will only end in pain? I've always said that I would never stop, no matter the cost, and so I will._

_My work has led me into a dead end. I'm running out of support from Itex, the Board thinks that the Recombinant DNA project has had next to no progress under my direction. They say that if I am unable to show them any real sign of progress, they will take away my blank check and strip me of my position. I can't allow that to happen, if I lose my job, then I'll be unable to find the answers that I seek. I cannot allow that to happen. _

_Some of my colleges think that I am insane, some have commended me, and other, namely the Board, are skeptic that I even did it. The reality is that I experimented on myself. I recombined my own DNA so that I am now ninety eight percent human, and two percent wolf. I'm a hybrid, a new species. I've decided to name my new form after the power to destroy. I am now an Eraser. My body has surprisingly taken well to the sudden change, and my mind is stable as far as science can tell. It is my mind, and I seem to be fine. The biggest change is that I can shift between my old body and my new one simply at will. My colleagues are frightened of my appearance, they say that I look like a monster. What I did not expect were side affects of the transformation. Every time I shift into an Eraser, I experience an insatiable blood lust. Only through great strength of will am I able to over come the blood lust. I've never felt the need to kill so strong, even I'm frightened by this new development. My new body is not one that should be taken lightly, the wolf DNA has given me better eyesight and hearing, better agility and dexterity. My physical strength is now incredulous compared to what it was before. It seems as if there is no ill side affects to the surgery. _

_It has been awhile since I last wrote in this indeed a lot has happened since then. The Board has officially approved of my work, and now progress is being achieved almost every day. The Director herself has allowed me to preform a surgery on her that will allow her to live far beyond her years if she went without it. I've neglected to make more of my kind. More Erasers. No one else should have the same gift as me. Only I know all of the secrets about recombinant DNA. All of the benefits and blessings, and all of the side affects and curses. Many of my subjects that undergo the perfected surgery take to the new DNA very slowly, and so a modification is needed to speed up the process of accepting the new genes. Unfortunately this leads to a drastic decrease in life expectancy. what I've observed is that the younger the subject is, the quicker that they are able to accept the genes. For them, it is not as necessary to speed up the change form human to hybrid. They grow into being a hybrid. And so I've ceased to preform work on fully grown human test subjects._

_My work has lately been focused on creating a new set of hybrids. A new breed of humans, they will be stronger in every way, better equipped for dealing with the harsh environment that the future will entail. I intend to create humans that will be different from every other human ever before. I intend to make them angels in a world filled with daemons. I intend to create angels, humans with wings. Avians. The Board has approved this idea, and I've already begun to experiment. the subjects I have been using have not taken well to the wings. At first I've simply tried grafting them into their spines and shoulders. But they are incapable of flying as I wish them to. It seems as if I will have to start from scratch. Start fresh, from the ground up. Mold them into the way I want them to be. I'll have to create new life, that way they will be able to adapt with the new genes from the very beginning of their conception. I'm going to create a whole new breed of life. It goes against all I've done in the past. I've done nothing but destroy, "erase". Do I really intend to create life? Absolutely. For the good mankind and for the sake of the future, I must continue. But I must remember always, that I am an Eraser, and that my purpose is to erase and destroy, never to create. For I am incapable of nothing else.  
_

_I've discovered something disturbing about myself. It seems as though my becoming of an Eraser was not with out side effect. my mind has been altered, not just by the blood lust, but by the ability to read other person's thoughts. I can read minds! This goes far beyond any other development that I've had thus far, it goes against decades of scientific thinking. I've stumbled upon something miraculous and dangerous. With this power, I will always have the advantage over anyone and everyone that ever confronts me. Nothing is a secret to me anymore. Except the answers. Everything about the human mind is now illuminated to me and my understanding. It is almost to much to bear, upon my discovery of this new ability, I have been unable to control it. My mind is now filled with countless of other foreign voices. I feel as if my own mind has no privacy. Those whose minds I do read have no idea that I even can. Of course irony has the last laugh there._

_It seems as though mind reading was not the only twist that fate had in store for me. Aside from the hours that I spend on the recombinant DNA project, I've also spent countless hours studying the durability and stability of the human mind. In short, I'm seeing how much a person can take before they are driven over the brink, and fall in insanity. This has led me to the invention of the White Room, a room that reads the residual brain waves of the test subjects and creates and projects a simulation of their worst fears and nightmares. I've placed this special invention in the Academy, an Itex facility just outside of Forks, Washington. I have plans for that room, and hopefully they will come to fruition soon. For as the days, weeks, months, and years pass away before my eyes, I feel myself aging. I've spent so much time as an Eraser, my natural form feels almost foreign to me. I have allowed myself to adapt to the change in my DNA at a natural pace, it seems as if the process is held out at a natural pace, then then more defined the recipients abilities are. Those who change to rapid can enter a state of degradation, and they are lost, only to later be "erased". I am responsible for so much success and failure. And yet I must progress, there is no turning back.

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_I'll tell you, it was really hard to write this chapter without giving away vital plot points, but somehow I was able to do it. I hope that it wasn't boring, sometimes writing from a philosophical standpoint seems a little daunting. This will not be the last time that we get to read from the Book of Locke, but it will be long time before we get to read from it again. And I'm sure that you're all dieing to know what has happened to Felix and Phoenix, well you can relax because the next chapter will take us back to Paris so that we can continue where we left off. So be patient. Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


	9. Chapter 9

Well it's about time that I got back to Paris. Felix and Phoenix sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g! I'm so nice, and yet so cynical. :) I hope that the last chapter wasn't too much of a detour, but trust me, it was a necessary detour after all of those bombshells that I dropped in chapter seven. And for those of you that weren't completely and utterly shocked, then you will be in this chapter. Don't forget to tape your jaws shut, because the surprises are far form over. So sit back and be patient, because it's time to figure out what I have in store for the two love birds. Oh darn, no pun...

Sorry for the late update, I blame school, and internet radio...

I own nothing!

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Chapter 9: 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3.

I stood there on the roof for a considerable amount of time, staring at where Isaac had just been. Some of his feathers had fallen off and lay on the roof. They were snow white like his hair, and the ones that were on the from the edge of his wings had tips that were a fiery red. I morphed back to my human state and sighed, letting the weight of it all crash onto my shoulders. This whole time, Jeb had lied to me. He never told me about his son Ari, or that Itex actually valued the avians, that they had plans for them. What was I supposed to do about it? I walked over and picked up one of his discarded feathers. It was like any other feather that I had seen, except that it wasn't as coarse, it was soft, almost downy.

I put the feather in my pocket and made my way back down stairs. What was Isaac talking about? Itex using the avians as a way to help prevent the apocalypse, it didn't make any sense. Had I been lied to my entire life? Was everything I know a lie? I entered the room where I left Dylan, Phoenix and Ari. Phoenix was still preoccupied with little Ari and his blocks, but Dylan had made his way over to the large window. His arms were crossed behind his back, and his gaze was aimed at the full moon. I walked over to him and pulled the feather out of my pocket. He didn't even glance at me.

"So he told you the truth." His eyes seemed to follow something moving outside.

"Yes."

"Only a fraction of it, neither him nor I know the entirety of it, but what we do know he has told you." I shot a glance out the window to see what he was looking at. Isaac was flying off in the distance. He wasn't flapping his wings, he was gliding around in effortless circles. Almost like a hawk circling its prey. "You're troubled, I can feel it. Calm yourself, nothing is going to happen here." I shot him a look of frustration and uncertainty. How is he so sure of himself, so calm.

"How have you been able to deal with it? You are one of them after all." He turned to face me. His face was stoic, and somewhat emotionless.

"It is an ordeal that affects each and every one of us different. I cannot tell you how to cope with it. How have you been able to cope with being an Eraser? They are one and the same." Somehow I found a small trace of solace in his words. Not that a shred of comfort was any good to me at the moment, seeing as how my understanding of the inner workings of Itex and the world had been turned upside down. Dylan walked away and sat back down on the couch, he crossed his arms over his chest, hung his head low and closed his eyes. I was just about to respond when The Chairman walked into the room. He raised an eyebrow, and as if to answer an unsaid question about Isaac's location, Dylan raised an arm and pointed to the large window. The Chairman squinted and then nodded.

"Well how has your experience in Paris been?" He glanced at Phoenix and then focused back on me.

"So far so good. May I ask why we were brought here?" The Chairman grinned ever so slightly and pulled out a silver pocket watch that matched his eyes.

"Well seeing as it is almost time, I'll tell you. Phoenix come here would you." Phoenix got up, leaving Ari to his blocks. She practically stood behind me, and crossed her arms. "So Jeb failed to tell you? Typically. Your purpose in being here is to celebrate the advances in our company. Think of it as sort of a company party, for us and our investors. One of our benefactors has oh so generously rented out the Eiffel Tower for us, and there will be a dinner party there in one hour. All of you are invited." He motioned to us and Dylan. "The Director will also be giving a speech on the company's achievements, I look forward to seeing all of you there. It will be formal, so do where your best." He did something along the lines of an about-face while putting his pocket watch away, and he walked out of the room, the door clicked shut behind him.

Phoenix put her hand on my back, feeling how tense I was. She had been so preoccupied with Ari that she hadn't heard anything that was said between me, Isaac, and Dylan. She walked in front of me, and laced her fingers in mine. She tilted her head slightly, in the cute way that she knew I liked, and looked at my eyes. She was trying to figure out what had happened, or at least I thought that's what she was doing.

"So are we going to the dinner party?" Deep down I didn't want to go, because of my my tendency to avoid social situations. But even deeper down I wanted to go, not to mention she wanted to go. With me. As in a date. I could see it behind her begging eyes. I smiled and nodded yes. Before I could react to her hiding a squeal, she grabbed my hind in her vice like grip and pulled me into the hotel lobby. She asked the receptionist where our rooms were. I couldn't hear the response because she was pulling me into the elevator. Our room was on the second floor to the top. Yes our room.  
We were sharing a room. Our luggage was outside the door. I thought that it was simply an accident in registration, but after I went back downstairs and asked the receptionist, my doubts were thrown out the window. When I got back to the room, the door was open and our suit cases were moved inside. It was awkward to say the least because the bed only fit one, and Phoenix was on it. "I called dibs, so you have to sleep on the floor." Naturally.

"Odin's going to flip if he finds out." I said as I made my way over to the pile of luggage. I pulled out my one suit case, and set it at the bed side.

"Yeah, he'd go on about how inappropriate it is. Besides, we can worry about it after the party." she acted as if she had an epiphany. She looked at me weirdly.

"What?"

"Did you... happen to bring anything besides your suits?"She knew me, I never packed anything besides the essentials.

"Did you?" I asked as a rebuttal. Her eyes lit up and she ran over to one of the suit cases and picked it out, and threw it on the bed. She opened it up and pulled out a red ball room dress. Duh, of course she did. She had a set of clothes for every occasion. But to my surprise, she tossed it over her shoulder, letting it fall on the floor in an uneven pile. She did the same for a few more dresses, pulling them out in a seemingly endless stream, like a magician pulling scarfs out of his sleeves, and then she stopped. I could see what she was looking at, but she looked at me and then looked back down. She closed the suit case, took it, and walked over to the pile of other cases. She pulled out another one, how she could tell the difference between the identical cases was beyond me, then she walked over to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. I heard the lock click shut, and the cases being placed on the counter.

"Tell me when it's time for the party! And don't come in!" I laid back on the bed, and spread my arms out. It was comfortable, it's a shame that I'll never get the chance to sleep on it. I chuckled slightly as I got up and pulled my suit case into my lap. I opened it up to find my the lone tuxedo in my possession on top of the rest of my suits. The tux was almost as old as my suit case, I got it when I went undercover in London to spy on a possible leak in information, but that's a story for another time.

After about forty minutes of waiting, I put on the tux. I was surprised that it still fit me. When I was done, I walked over to the bathroom door and tapped on it.

"Don't come in!" She screamed as if I had opened the door.

"It's time to go." I said, tugging on the jacket to straighten it out. I could hear her groan, she wasn't ready.

"Just go, I'll be there later." Disappointment echoed off of the walls.

"You sure?" She really wanted to go. She sighed.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'll be there, just go." I heard a suit case close. I didn't want to go without her, but she told me to leave. Reluctantly I left the room and started to walk down the hall towards the elevator. I pressed the down button and waited for it to arrive, it was actually coming down. The sliding doors opened with the accompaniment of a ding, and there was Dylan. He was in a tuxedo that looked brand new. He stood off to the side, with his arms behind his back. An eyebrow raised when he noticed it was me getting on. A grin spread over his face as the door closed behind me.

"I never took you as the one to wear a tuxedo."

"I never took you as the one to go." He chuckled at my rebuttal.

"Touche, and ditto. The doctor thought that it would be in my best interests if I came, in actuality I'm doing this to appease him." He closed his eyes. "What about you?"

"Well I was brought here to represent the best of the Eraser project, and that is what I intend to do." He opened his eyes back up. It was awkwardly silent the rest of the way down, but when we emerged from the elevator, the lobby was buzzing with the same people from early today, except now they were all wearing tuxedos. Everyone was lining up at the door, as a fleet of limousines was ready to transport them to the Eiffel Tower. The supply of limos seemed endless and me and Dylan were on our way mere moments later.

Aside from being one of the most iconic landmarks in all of the world, the Eiffel Tower also has a restaurant in it. As we made our way to a table I was amazed that everyone could fit in there. I sat at a table with Dylan off in one of the corners. Jeb walked by with Ari and asked us if Ari could sit with us. Dylan helped the little kid into his seat and it wasn't long before the rest of the crowd had found a seat. A woman at the front of the room walked up a makeshift stage and stood behind a pulpit. The Director, Marian Janssen, the head of the Board of Directors. She was in charge of everything that went down in the science department of the company, she answered to no one, where as Jeb and The Chairman had to answer to her.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as the Director of the science department of Itex, I welcome you all and our generous benefactors and investors for making all of this possible. I'd also like to give a special thanks to Nino Pierpont for renting out the Eiffel Tower for our company party." The crowd cheered as a man surrounded by body guards stood up and waved. "We've had yet another successful year in the science department with many new developments taking place. I am happy to announce that our work in the recombinant DNA projects has not been in vain. We are one more step closer to insuring a safe future for mankind.

"And we are proud to have some of our finest work with us here this very night, to all of the Erasers in our service, the Board extends a heartfelt thank you. Your contribution to the security of this company is appreciated." The Director continued on about how the company wouldn't be what it is today if it weren't for the ever so generous contributions from our various benefactors. A special thank you was given to Dr. Gunther-Hagen and a man called Mr. Chu. When the good doctor stood up, Dylan's gaze was fixated on him. That must have been his guardian, but I had never heard of Mr. Chu before, probably just another billionaire who wanted his piece of the Itex pie.

After a lengthy speech, dinner was served to us by an army of waiters and waitresses, wheeling carts around the restaurant floor like ants on a hunt. The food was by far beyond exquisite, but seeing as how I haven't much five star food in my life, I had almost nothing to compare it too. Dylan was served a beef tartar with a side of caviar, I was promptly served the rarest prime rib that I had ever seen. Dylan eyeballed his plate in disgust.

"Looks like this year's theme is raw meat. Simply fantastic. Because we all have to get e-coli at least once in our lives." I chuckled at his sarcasm. "Oh and let's not forget the unfertilized sturgeon eggs." I looked over at Ari, he had been served a large grilled cheese sandwich, and being the young child that he was, was making the most of it. Dylan couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of Ari covered in melted cheese, and neither could I. I picked up a fork and knife and began cutting into the prime rib, letting it drain of as much blood as I could. Normally I could stand the sight of blood, but this made me want to puke, not wanting to be rude, I had to eat it. As subtly as I could, my teeth turned into fangs, and my tongue became accustomed to the taste of blood. Letting out the Eraser part of me made that the most delicious prime rib I have ever had.

When everyone was done with their meals the army of waiters and waitresses came and took care of the plates, silverware, and crystal glasses. We were told to stand up, and another army of people came, this time, they removed all the chairs and tables from the restaurant. As the last of the tables were carried out, the Director stood at the microphone again. Dylan had propped himself up against a wall, and Ari stood at his side clinging to the leg of his pants.

"And now ladies and gentlemen, it is time for the ballroom dance." The sound of shattering glass echoed in my head, whether a window actually broke or not, I don't know. But me and ballroom dancing don't mix. Dylan hung his head low and shook it back and forth. Now I know why he was against the wall.

"Not much of a dancer are you Felix?" He said taunting me. "I think I'll leave you to your solitude. Come on Ari, let's go find your dad." He grabbed Ari's hand and they walked off into the crowd of wallflowers, leaving me all alone in the corner. Well this is just perfect, all alone in a scenario that I dread, could this day get any better. As fate would have it, it could, and it did.

I was looking out the window trying not to be noticed, when I was tapped on the shoulder. When I turned around I almost fainted.

"Mind if we dance?" It was Phoenix. Angels couldn't compare to how beautiful she looked. Her hair was done up in a long and complicated braid that fell down her back. She was wearing a black dress that she hid form me earlier, it was almost backless. She wore a pair of black polished bracelets and high heels. She was wearing lipstick that was the same shade of red as my eyes. I couldn't take my eyes off of her, everything about her was perfect, from the crown of her head, to the tips of her toes. Perfect, and perfection was asking me to dance. I stammered, what can I say, I was utterly speechless. She blushed at my response, if you could call it a response. She took my hand and pulled my onto the dance floor.

Needless to say, I wasn't the most experienced when it came to dancing. Although, as circumstance would have it, I knew how to waltz, don't ask how, my lips are sealed. I took her right hand in mine, and placed my right hand around her waist. As we began, everything around us seemed to disappear, all that existed was the two of us. We could take our eyes off of each other, which is a good thing because we were so embarrassed both of our faces were as red as tomatoes. AS we continued to dance the distance between our bodies got smaller and smaller. I wasn't sure if I was pulling her in, or if she was moving closer, but it wasn't long before we were right next to each other. Her arms wrapped around my neck, and my arms slid around her waist.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

We pulled each other as close as we could, and our dance stopped all together as we kissed. If there was ever a moment that I was sure was heaven, it was that. Her lips pressed against mine, the taste, the feeling like fire, the sensation of floating off of the ground, her hands wrapped tightly around my neck, pulling me in to deepen the kiss. She was my angel, and I was her guardian. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

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..and the fact that this is the longest chapter that I've ever written. So yeah. Ladies, that special someone is out there, you just have to keep looking. And the same thing goes for you gentlemen, if you're out there. I'm glad that I'm practically done with Paris, because things are going to start moving. Try to remember names, names are very important, because you never know who might show up again. *evil laughs to self* Anyway please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


	10. Chapter 10

Finally! I'm done with Paris! Well... not quite, I still have to get them home. Now I'd like to thank all of my reviews and readers, you know who you are. If you read my last story then you know that me and **AmyQueen95** mentioned each others current stories. I'd figure that I'd do the same now, you know, 'cause she's so awesome. She's writing a wonderful story called_ The Cutoff Chronicles: An Icy Blaze_. So far so good, it's well worth your time. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the romance, it will continue, it's part of the title for crying out loud! But, I suppose it's time to get back to the story.

Oh, sorry for the lateness of the update, but I took the weekend off, I had a rough week and needed some down time to collect my thoughts.

I own nothing!

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Chapter 10: Time For The Hunt

Needless to say, the two of us had a smile on our faces for the rest of the night. As the party ended, the fleet of limos reappeared to whisk us back to the hotel. During the ride back Phoenix fell asleep, her head finding it's way to my shoulder, and my arm found its way around her waist, pulling her closer to me. She was so tired that she didn't wake up when we arrived. So what was I supposed to do, carry her bridal style up the stairs because the elevator was to crammed? Why not?

Despite the raised eyebrows and strange looks that I received, I still carried her all the way to our room. The problem was that the door had a knob instead of a handle, but somehow I managed. I lay her down on the bed fit for one as carefully as I could. She looked so peaceful, so innocent. I took off my jacket and put it on her as a blanket, and I, sat on the edge of the bed while rubbing her back. I shifted my gaze between her and the Paris skyline outside the window. What a stunning view, the whole city was lit up. Not like the glaring neon lights of Vegas of New York, but a more calming and tranquil glow that vaguely resembled twilight.

As the night drifted on my mind began to reflect on the events of the day. We had arrived in Paris, I met a multitude of people, most notably Ari, Isaac, and Dylan. Each one of them was a mystery to me. Isaac was The Chairman's son, and had knowledge that was astounding for his age. Dylan was an avian, same as Isaac, and he was created in a lab, he was as eccentric as Isaac was. Each one of the two were truly an enigma. And then there was Ari, I hardly had any contact with the child, which is a shame considering that he's Jeb's son. Why hadn't Jeb told me that he had a son? The way that Isaac talked to me, it was as if Itex doesn't value the Erasers as much as they say they do. My mind was racked with so many conflicting ideas of what I've believed to be true, and what I've just learned, my mind was unable to find peace during the night.

_How do you know it's a lie when it's all you know?_

Phoenix woke up as the crest of the sun broke the barrier of the horizon. During the night I had moved over to the arm chair in the side of the room. My head was hung, resting in my arms. I was still in my tuxedo, minus the jacket. She had slept peacefully, were as I hadn't had a wink of sleep. She sat up, and looked at me concerned.

"Felix? Did you get any sleep last night?" She yawned. I lifted my head, and grinned at her weakly, I was exhausted. She smiled at me. "I'll take that as a no." I stood up and walked over to the bed.

"You on the other hand, you slept like a baby." I sat on the bed next to her. " How did you get to the party so late? All of the limos were gone."

"When I was done, I was getting in the elevator to go to the lobby and I ran into Isaac. He had a limo waiting for him, and he offered to give me a ride. When I got there I looked for you, and Isaac pointed you out... I guess I fell asleep on the way back. How did I get up hear?"

"I carried you." Her face turned a little red a the thought of me carrying her up the stairs. "Anyway, I'll let you change." We got off the bed and she went into the washroom. I stayed in the room and changed back into my Eraser suit. When she came out, she was in her suit, and her hair was in a long straight pony tail. I gave my suit jacket a slight tug to straighten it out.

"Let's go get some breakfast." She ran over to the door and grabbed my hand, then she began pulling me down the hall, just like at the School. We made our way downstairs to find the lobby full of Erasers and executives. Jeb was talking to a group of business men with The Chairman, Isaac was next to his father and he caught sight of us. He grinned slightly and made his way over to us.

"May I ask how your night was?"

"Enjoyable, thanks for asking." I glanced at Jeb. "What's going on there?"

"Oh the usual, just business talk about more funding and the progress of the current experiments." He stopped and sniffed the air. "Ah good, breakfast is ready. I take it that you two are hungry? Let me take you to the buffet." He motioned for us to head in the direction of the conference room. Tables were lined up and covered in a vast array of food. Everything from eggs benedict, to strawberry crepes, and let's not forget the mountain of bacon on a silver charter. The room smelled of maple syrup. I heard a faint rumble from Phoenix, that's right, she hadn't had anything to eat last night. We made our way through the buffet, taking on copious amounts of whatever it was that we were in the mood for. When we were all ready to eat we found a table to sit at in the corner of the room. Ari was a little ways off playing with some of the executive's children, when he caught sight of us, he walked over to us and hugged each of our legs. Phoenix grinned, she must have made an impression on the child last night. When we were situated I picked Ari up and let him sit on my lap.

Needless to say the food was as exquisite as it was last night. Ari was gnawing away at an endless supply of bacon, Isaac was eating belgian waffles, Phoenix was helping herself to some of the strawberry crepes, and I was sitting in front of a Tower of Babel constructed out of flapjacks. Although as time passed it began to resemble The Leaning Tower of Pisa. Every morsel of food was gone in a matter of minutes, what I couldn't stomach, Ari finished off. The little tyke was bottomless.

"Well I must say, that was enjoyable." Isaac said wiping his mouth with a napkin. I saw his eyes glance at something behind us. I turned around to see Jeb and The Chairman walking over to us. A huge smile grew on Ari's face, and he stretched out his arms in anticipation for his father's embrace. Jeb picked Ari up and gave him a bear hug, that was the most fatherly that I'd ever seen Jeb, it was almost haunting, considering how he acted under any other circumstance. He wasn't even the same person, his smile seemed lighter, as if it was a happiness that I was unfamiliar with. A father's love for his son, it could turn any man into a softy. I smiled on the inside.

"Did the two of you have an enjoyable time?" Jeb asked as he set Ari down on the ground. Ari still clung to his father's legs as if he was going away.

"Yes we did. Thank you for bringing us." The Chairman chuckled.

"It was nothing, I needed an escort on the way here and back anyway, and the two of you were off duty. Speaking of going home, we leave in an hour, so pack your bags and say your goodbyes." He crouched down and looked Ari in the eyes. He gave his son another long embrace, and judging from his expression reluctantly let go. He got up and walked out of the room with The Chairman in tow. Isaac let out a sigh, and closed his eyes. Ari let out a small sniffle and walked over to Phoenix who scooped him up, and put him on her lap.

"I miss Daddy." I heard him mumble. He hid his face in Phoenix's jacket and hugged her for comfort.

"The child doesn't see his father often enough."

"How often does he see Jeb?" Phoenix asked.

"As often as I do, and that isn't very often. He lives with me and my father most of the time. It's a crime that he hardly sees him, Jeb works so many hours, he's almost always on the clock. Just like my father." He paused, and stared off into space. He blinked breaking the self induced trance. "Well it's been a pleasure to meet the both of you. I do hope that we'll meet again in the future. Oh and don't worry, I'll take good care of Ari." We got up from the table and I shook his hand. Phoenix gave Ari a hug, and when she was done, he walked over to me and hugged my legs before I could pick him up. I stood there looking down on him, puzzled. Phoenix laughed because I didn't know what to do. When Ari was done he made his way over to Isaac, and gripped his pants.

"Take care, and tell Dylan that we look forward to seeing him again." Isaac nodded, and gave us a flick of his hand, waving us off on our way.

"I will." We made our way back to our room, and started packing. It was easy enough for me, I only had one suitcase. She had emptied out at least three of hers, not to mention the pile of used dresses that were at the foot of the bed. I helped her fold up the multitude of dresses, and she was in the bathroom packing everything back up. This time, I had room service bring up a luggage cart so I wouldn't have to carry everything to the limo. The poor bellhop did not expect to see that many suitcases from one room. We waited in the lobby for Jeb, while the limo was being loaded. As we sat on one of the couches, we saw a few of our kind, acquaintances from the other packs, as they escorted their respective executives and scientists out to the fleet of limos.

Sure enough not a second late, Jeb showed up, carrying a suitcase in each hand. Even he had more luggage then me. At last we got in the limo and were on our way to the air port. Jeb sat in the front again, leaving the two of us in the back. This time though we looked out the windows at the stunning beauty that is Paris. The city was a mix of the old and the new. Notre Dame loomed over us at one point, and we could see the gargoyles and the grotesques jutting out of the ancient and hallowed walls. I was going to miss Paris, it was different from every other place that I had been assigned to. All to soon though we arrived at the airport, and were hurried through the custom. Yet again, I had to pass through security, I still hated it, but every time it seemed less and less dreadful.

We road first class as always, and had the pleasure of a television at our disposal. I hardly ever watched the news, usually I just read it in the paper. The bias was still there, but it was nice to listen to it for a change. This time, I actually got a bag of complementary peanuts. I shook it to get Phoenix's attention, when she noticed what I had she laughed. I wasn't much for salted peanuts, it was more of the tradition of simply getting them that satisfied me. Jeb had isolated himself in the front of the first class section and was reading and endless supply of documents about the progress of the other Itex facilities around the world. He didn't have the time to go visit each and every one, so he had them send weekly reports to him. This time he got the pleasure of receiving them in person.

Later during the day we arrived back in the United States. It felt good to be home, there truly was no place like it. It took us awhile to actually leave the airport though. One of Jeb's suit cases got lost in luggage claim, all of Phoenix's were found, and so was mine. Just not one of his, and so we waited until it was found. By the time that we had found the lost case, had every thing packed up in the same car that had driven us to the airport, and got back to the School, it was well past sunset. The cloudless desert sky was shining with stars and the cold of the night had not quite set in yet.

We took our cases back to our rooms and went back to the break room. Odin was there and welcomed both of us back with open arms. When he hugged Phoenix he looked me in the eyes to see if there was any guilt, he found none.

"It's good to have the two of you back. It's been unbearably quiet, not that you make much noise anyway Felix." There was an exchange of laughs and I shook his hand. The welcome was short lived though because no sooner had I shook his hand did the alarm go off. Moments later Jeb stormed into the break room. His eyes were wide and were darting around the room.

"He's escaped again! He's actually outside the facility, I need everyone out there to hunt him down and bring him back, alive if you can! We can't afford to have him out and about, he could ruin everything! Go! Now!" In a flash the three of us had turned into Erasers and were out the door, running down the hall as fast as our legs could carry us. Locke had actually escaped this time, it would be a miracle if we could find him. This wasn't like the times when the experiments would break lose and we could hunt them down in a matter of minutes, no, this was going to be a hunt in every sense of the word.

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Gentlemen, time for the hunt! Locke's on the lose, will they be able to catch him, or is he going to finally get away? At least they're home now. But I'm so excited because of the big hunt! I've been waiting for this for a long time, this will most certainly be fun. Please continue to read and review, it matters a lot. TBC, so all in due time.

P.S. BACON!


	11. Chapter 11

Ah yes the thrill of the hunt, the rush of exhilaration. Your prey fleeing for their pitiful life. The fear in their eyes, the knowledge that this is their last night alive!... To bad it's not going to be like that, but that's what you get for being part wolf and chasing a madman through the wasteland. Let's just hope that Felix will be able to catch Locke, because we don't want a psychopathic scientist with a questionable set of morals and mutant powers running around now do we? We also get a glimpse at the rest of Epsilon pack and a first look at Sigma pack.

I own nothing!

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Chapter 11: Rants of a Madman

We stormed down the hall, meeting the other packs that were stationed here as well. Epsilon and Sigma packs were running down the halls and almost ran into us. Alex was heading his pack with his cronies Grendel and Charon, and Hephaestus, the leader of Sigma pack, had the identical twins Quetzal and Coatl behind him. Sigma pack I was pleased to see, as for Epsilon, not so much. Alex was already taken by the blood lust, his eyes darting erratically this way and that. Charon was probably the most excessively muscular Eraser ever created, although his extra bulk made him the slowest. Grendel was hunched over in his Eraser form, his long slender limbs hid a deceptive amount of considerable strength and ferocity.

Hephaestus had more composure then Alex, but he was acting like an animal that had just been released from its cage. What a shame, he was such a good person, I hated seeing him corrupted. The twins were just disturbing, no one could tell the difference between them, and they switched there names during conversations so you couldn't tell who was who. I wonder if they knew which one they really were. They were running down the hall in sync with one another, the combined force of their foot steps drowning out the clatter of everyone else.

The School was in lock down mode, and all doors leading to the various laboratories were locked from the inside. Oddly enough the front door was open, but then again, the front door and lobby was simply a ruse in case anyone caught wind of our operation. We left the entrance and entered a world of pure shadow. The world was only illuminated by the glow given off by the stars and the moon. We all stopped dead in our tracks, not knowing which way Locke had run off in. Alex sniffed the air, trying to pick up the stench of rot that Locke always gave off. He growled at his disappointment.

"What's the matter Alex, no lead?" Grendel sneered, he bore his fangs, ready to gnash at the first moving object he saw. My eyes shot at Alex waiting to see what he would do. He got on all fours and scanned the horizon.

"Hey Felix." He said, not taking his eyes off the flat wasteland before him.

"What?" I replied, irritated by his presence.

"First ones to find Locke get the break room all to themselves for a month. What do you say?" He tried to hold back a chuckle but it came out anyway.

"Get out of here Alex." Odin said, scratching his chin with his claws.

"Whatever." He bolted off into the darkness, Charon and Grendel followed suit. Hephaestus turned away and started planning with the twins about what they were going to do. Odin grabbed my shoulder so we could huddle up.

"OK, Locke couldn't have gotten far, and knowing him, he might not really be escaping. He never has, and I doubt that he ever will. So here's the plan. I'll check the area surrounding the School, Phoenix, you go scan the School again, make sure that he's really gone, and Felix, you go on top of the School and look for any good hiding spots out there." He gestured to nothing out in the distance. When we're done return to the lobby so we can report. Don't head back out until all of us have returned." Me an Phoenix nodded in acquiescence, after that we each headed for our assigned positions. Odin ran off into the wilderness in a different direction the Epsilon pack, Phoenix bolted back inside and began scanning the School for anything out of the ordinary, and I clawed my way on top of the School to get a better look.

The School wasn't that tall, but it made such a difference. I could see Odin charging off into the unknown, and in the distance I could make out little specks that were Epsilon pack. The twins were walking around the school in opposite directions and Hephaestus was chasing after Odin. Aside from that the wastes were a desert of nothingness that seemed to engulf the School in utter darkness. I was all alone on the roof of the School, and I was trying to find a needle in a haystack.

"Oh come on Felix, I know you better then that. You can't give up that easily." Locke's voice sent a shiver up my spine and made my skin crawl. His voice was like icebergs colliding, the sound of bones breaking. Purely unpleasant, and undesirable to the ear.

I turned around almost losing my footing to find Locke propped up against a set of ventilation tubes and antennas. He flashed me a wicked grin, his sickly yellow teeth glittered. A bit of the Eraser in me came out and I growled defensively. He got up and used his half transformed hand to brush away his long filthy untamed hair. His suit was still in tatters, and his eyes seemed to absorb all of the starlight around him. He was like a black hole.

"Catch me if you can." I blinked and he was half way to the other side of the roof. By the time I got to the edge, he had jumped off and was sprinting for the rocky hills behind the School. I jumped and my adrenaline kicked in giving me just enough of a boost to make a mad dash after him gaining a lot of ground. I reached into my pocket and flipped on a homing beacon to give away my position, this way the pack could track me, and I was tracking Locke. He jumped like a cougar up a cliff face and stood triumphantly looking down to see if I could mimic his actions. I leaped as high as I could, grabbing onto the edge at the peak of my jump. I used my momentum to pull myself up in one swift motion, Locke had already started running again.

When I got to my feet he was out of sight. I could have smelled his pungent vile stench with my regular nose, so it wasn't that hard to figure out which way he went. He was headed higher into the cliffs, trying to head off in seemingly pointless directions. He wasn't trying to get away he was just leading me on, trying to get me to follow him. My pace quickened the higher we got, he was running out of less and less space. I found him standing at the edge of a cliff over looking the School and the surrounding wasteland. It was stunning. He turned around to face me, his hands were practically paws, and his face wasn't quite a snout. His ears were slightly pointed, but his eyes were still the same soulless shade of black that they had always been.

"Are you done running Locke?" I said almost out of breath.

"I would say quite, but then again, I'm not running now am I?" The corners of his mouth rose a little, hiding an underlying smile. "How was Paris?"

"Shut up, why did you escape? Why did you lead me off into the middle of no where?"

"So young, and so full of questions. You remind me of myself. Although I'm glad you figured out that I was leading you out here instead of trying to escape. I never intended to escape, I planned on you following me, and here we are."

"What do you want Locke?"

"All I want is for the two of us to talk."

"I sincerely doubt that."

"How do you know it's the truth when it's all you know. And how do you know that it could be a lie if it's all you know?" I was speechless he got me. "I've been wondering Felix if you had given any thought to our past conversations about your illusive past?" As a matter of fact I hadn't, there was no way that I was going to listen to him. I shook my head, and he grunted to clear his throat. "What a shame, such a waste of talent and yet you don't even know that it's there. What ever am I to do with you my boy?" He paused as if he was trying to collect his thoughts for an entire speech.

"I take it that you saw many people in Paris. Perhaps you saw some of my old colleges and some of the members of the Board? It doesn't matter. I was wondering if you had learned anything in your time there?" I didn't respond. There was no way I was telling him about Isaac, Dylan, and Ari. "Ah, so you have. Good, then your time there wasn't a complete waste." Or at least I didn't think that I responded. "You can't hide anything from me Felix, remember i have been cursed with more then just the ability to transform." That's right he can read minds.

"You've learned that the company may not value Erasers as much as they say they do. I'm sure that came as quite a shock to your system. Even more so about how much work that they have put in to perfecting the avians." This was insane, I wasn't even saying or thinking anything, he was reading my mind as if it were a book! My mind felt violated, if that was even possible. "You see, not all is as you have perceived it to be. You have been lied to all of these long and troubling years, and for what? Your service to the very people that lie to you. Even Jeb, even he has lied to you, Felix. About his son." my eyes opened wide up at the mention of Ari, even he knew. "Yes I know all about little Ari, I know that you and the Erasers are some of the last people to know. Even the avians have at least seen him." He chuckled at the expression of absolute shock on my face.

"Do you not understand my boy? You have been lied to your whole life about everything! Your purpose, your past, and the details behind your very creation! They have been hidden from you, and they are there waiting for you to uncover them. I'm simply trying to help you uncover the truth."

"What if I'm happy the way I am!" I just wanted it all to end. It was like a nightmare that I couldn't wake up from. Was it all true, it all made so much sense to me. Had I really been lied to?

"Insolent fool boy! Ignorance is bliss! Knowledge is power, but it is a double edged sword, it is both a blessing and a curse. In one hand, one would have the power to destroy an entire civilization, but in the other, the repercussions, the guilt. Oh how the human character is flawed so pervasively. Not one iota of our beings is perfect, and that my boy is why we must seek for those oh so few and precious truths that govern the very foundation of existence. I'm trying to help you figure them out for yourself, they are there, if only you would reach out and claim them!"

"What do you mean? If everything I know is a lie, how am I supposed to find truth? How do I know that you aren't just some deranged madman trying to drive me insane?"

"You don't, and you'll have to figure that out for yourself, I had to do the same. It is a hard thing that I am asking of you, but I know that you will be able to accomplish your purpose, it is only a matter of time. Whether by your hand or not, destiny will have its way in determining our fates. I am simply trying to manipulate destiny for the better, for the greater good, no matter the cost, and you my boy, are part of a greater plan. You could be so much more if only you looked at the world from my point of view, why do you chose to be ignorant?"

"I didn't chose this path Locke, you are forcing it on me, and guess what. I'm taking the other road. Your insane, so what if I've been lied too. It's not like I'm going to go and listen to your every whim. No, I'm my own person, and I will determine my fate. And as for your fate, you will spend the rest of your pitiful and meaningless existence in a cell with nothing but you and your deranged writings. I'm not going to let you run my life." He didn't respond, he just stood there looking at me with an unsure observing eye. Was he reading my mind again? What was he really planning, was he ever even going to try to escape? He made no sense, nothing about him did. He started to laugh.

"You are a man of strong constitution Felix, I can see it now. You are being held back, too attached to things to see the bigger picture. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to sever those attachments for your benefit. As much as you may hate me, trust me when I say that one day, you will thank me." He started to laugh again.

"Felix!" Odin, Phoenix and Sigma pack came running up the cliff, ready to tear Locke's head off. It's about time that they showed up. The twins pounced on him, Locke didn't resist. Odin put him in cuffs and handed him over to Hephaestus. The twins escorted Locke back to the School, one on each side, and Hephaestus covered from the rear. Odin headed back with Sigma pack, he wanted to make sure for himself that Locke was locked up tight this time. Phoenix trailed behind them with me.

"I was so worried, I thought that he killed you because your signal wasn't moving on the screen." She slipped her hand into mine, she wanted to make sure that I was really there, that I was OK. I was, physically, but mentally, part of me was still up on the cliff. There was no way that I was going to get any sleep tonight.

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Well there you have it folks. Locke's up to something big. That, or he's completely and utterly insane. Only time will tell. What is the truth though? How is Felix going to react to his world being flipped upside down? I know what's going to happen, the question is what do you think is going to happen? Please continue to read and review.


	12. Chapter 12

Locke is insane, that's all I'm going to say on the subject. So now all we can do is see how Felix is going to react to having his world turned upside down. Because we all know that the world just isn't meant to stay right side up now is it?

I'm sorry for the lateness and infrequency of my updates, but I've just been hammered with mountains of English homework. So much reading... Page after page, syntax error after syntax error! Symbolism, diction, archetypes! *head explodes from overload*

Felix:... Well, um... I'll get Jeb on this as soon as I can. Until then, just read this chapter. *Odin walks in*

Odin: What the...

Felix: Don't ask...

I own nothing!

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Chapter 12: Atlas and the Brothers Grimm

We arrived back at the School sooner then I had anticipated. Jeb was waiting out front with a group of scientists that promptly placed Locke in the scariest looking straight jacket that I'd ever seen. He was gagged, bound, and escorted back to his holding unit by the mob of scientists and Hephaestus. Jeb stayed out front with the twins, and Odin, they began discussing how the hunt went. Phoenix and I bypassed Jeb and went to the break room.

I flipped the lights on and sank into my chair, letting out a big sigh. Phoenix squeezed into the chair as well, lacing her fingers into my hand. She was worried, as well as she tried to hide it, I could tell that she was. I leaned forward and held my head in my hands. My head felt like it was going to split in two. Phoenix didn't know what to say, so she started to rub my back, trying to ease my mental suffering.

"What's wrong Felix?" I couldn't tell her the truth, it would only put her what I was going through. But I couldn't lie to her either. What was I supposed to do? I got up from the chair, leaving her there. I paced back and forth across the carpeted floor, the only sound in the room was coming from the bubbling of the fish tank, and the shuffling of my shoes. I let out another heavy sigh, she never took her gaze off of me.

"Locke's trying to turn me against Itex. He's been saying that my whole life has been nothing but a lie, that I existed before Jeb created me. I just don't know what to believe. What am I supposed to do?" I was asking questions not expecting to get an answer. "Am I supposed to listen to him? Jeb does have a son, why wouldn't he tell me? Locke and Isaac both said that the Erasers aren't valued like Itex says they are. And what about my past. You had a life before, what about me? Locke keeps on saying that I existed before, but that I've lost my past. What am I supposed to believe?" My legs felt like they were going to give out, like I was going to fall to my knees and scream. My whole world was falling apart, and I was powerless to do anything about it. I was helpless, hopeless. I looked at Phoenix, she sat there looking at me with unsure eyes, questioning what it was she was supposed to do as well. How was she supposed to respond to me having a mental meltdown.

I could see fear in her eyes. Fear, not for herself, but for me. I could see my face reflected in her green eyes, I was afraid, it was written all over my face. She got up from the couch and paced over to me. She didn't say a word, instead she just stood there looking me in the eyes, trying to get me to fall under that hypnotic spell of her's. She wrapped her arms around me and held me tight, trying give give me the comfort that I needed.

"You just need to relax, everything's going to be alright. All that matters is what's happening right here and now." She smiled, her face only inches away from mine. She was trying to get my mind off the subject at hand, and to my pleasure, it was working. I couldn't help but get lost in the grove that was her eyes again. Almost subconsciously we inched closer to each other until our lips were pressed against each other. My arms slither up her back, pulling her closer, and she tightened her grip on me. Between kisses we just stood there, feeling the warmth of each others bodies. That was the first moment of true peace I had all night. What seemed like an eternity was only mere moments, and our little slice of eternity came to an end to both of our dismays.

As our arms fell back down to our sides, just as the twins and Epsilon pack barged into the break room. The twins never left each others side, they might as well have been conjoined at the hip. Alex leaped over the couch, taking the whole thing for himself. Grendel lurked in the corner much like his namesake would, and Charon loomed over the pool table. Alex shot me a nasty look.

"Heard the old man got some quality time with you? What did you talk about?"

"Nothing that concerns you Alex." I shot back at him. Phoenix moved behind me. "What about you, running off into the middle of nowhere, I'm sure that earned you some bonus points with the boss." His eyes shot daggers at me.

"Bite me." Everyone in the room immediately stopped whatever it was that they were doing and me an Alex became the center of attention. Alex got up from the couch and stood in front of me, trying to seem like a threat, frankly I wasn't in the mood. The tension in the air was thick, eyes darted from person to person, seeing who would react first. Charon fumbled with a pool stick, ready to use it as a weapon if necessary, I could feel Phoenix growing tense behind me. I thought I heard Grendel growl faintly, anticipating blood. The twins just stood there like statues, waiting to take sides on whoever they thought would win the fight. "Go ahead wolf boy, huff and puff and blow all you want, but you'll never blow me down."

"Oh I don't have to Alex, because I've got an axe that's just waiting to split you open."

"Oh, stop being such a Grimm. Don't you have some evil step mother to stop?"

"Just the old spinster staring me in the face, why don't you go tend to your hideous daughter's wounds." Out of the corner of my eye I saw his fist clench. "After all, I'm sure that having you toes and heel's cut off isn't something you take lightly." I saw a muscle in his jaw clench. "And let's not forget having their eyes gouged out, but I'm sure you've got it covered."

He was just about to raise his fist, just about to make the biggest mistake of his life, when Odin and Hephaestus came in. It was as if their presence dissolved the tension, and the mood in the break room seemed to gain some sense of normality. Hephaestus put his hand on Odin's shoulder, as if to continue a conversation that they had earlier.

"All I'm saying is you've got to keep an eye on him, you never know what's been happening behind closed doors-"

"That's enough Hephaestus." Odin said, silencing him with a raised hand. He scanned the room, and judged what he had missed by the positions of everyone. He gave out a little sigh. "Charon, but the stick down before I make you. And Alex, why don't you leave before you say something that you're going to regret." Alex looked at him, not wanting to start a fight with Odin in the room, he scoffed and shuffled his way out of the room. After Charon put the stick down, him and Grendel followed suit. Odin waited until he heard the door click shut to continue. He looked at me, analyzing what had just happened from the look on my face. "I didn't miss anything did I?" I sighed in relief.

"No, just a couple of quips, how's Jeb doing?" I walked back over to my chair and sat down, Phoenix walked over to the fish tank and started to feed the starving creatures.

"Oh, he'll get over it. But you know Jeb, he's not going to get any sleep tonight." Odin said as he walked over to his pool table and put the stick back on the rack. That's true, Jeb never took anything lightly, and every time that Locke broke out, he either fired someone or he would be able to sleep out of paranoia. It was unnerving and almost self destructive. Not only was it hard on him, but it was hard on everyone because we had to put up with him. The twins chuckled at the thought of Jeb on the mental breaking point, something just wasn't right with them. Hephaestus sat down on the couch on the opposite side of the room.

"Down right shame that we could get there sooner, sorry that you had to keep Locke preoccupied." Truthfully he was upset that he couldn't rip Locke to pieces when he had the chance. Although, I took it as an apology anyway, it just made everything easier. Hephaestus eyeballed the twins, funny, he was the leader of their pack and even he couldn't tell them apart. The room was awkwardly silent after that so I got up and headed for my room with out a word of good bye. Just a quick glance at Phoenix and Odin that said everything that needed to be said.

The lights were still off, and the hall was as stone silent as always. The only noise was the sound of my footsteps on the tiled floor. I passed by a scientist carrying a wad of files in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. I half expected him to trip on his way to the lab.

The Alpha pack block was completely empty, it was eerily silent this time though. I walked into my room and closed the door with one hand and turned on the light with the other. My room was as empty as I had left it, with the bed neatly made, the closet neatly organized, and the painting hanging over my bed. It was so odd, I was the only one that never seemed to actually look at it. Considering that it had been hanging in my room for quite some time, one would think that I would have given it some time and thought, but alas no.

I changed into a black shirt and black shorts. If anything, the one thing I needed was to get some sleep, the events of the day weighed heavy on my shoulders and mind. I sat at the edge of my bed and shot a glance at the painting. I threw myself onto my bed, my head falling onto my pillow. I managed to scrounge fragments of mental peace in the familiarity of my bed. Enough even to fall asleep.

_One can only imagine the look on my face. I was staring at my painting as though it held the secret of the universe behind its was there next to me staring at the painting the same way, so was Isaac and Dylan, and the little blond avian. Why was she there, and why were we all staring at the painting? Nobody was acting the way that they should, Locke wasn't trying to ramble on about my past, Isaac and Dylan were laughing over nothing, and the avian was just there staring at me. Her eyes were drilling holes in my head. She was wearing glass slippers and a white night gown. _

_There was a pounding noise from the other side of my door, and Alex came barging in in his Eraser form. He preceded to swallow Locke whole and was just about to eat the little avian when Isaac took an axe that seemed to appear out of nowhere and split open Alex's core, releasing Locke and killing Alex. No sooner had Alex hit the floor then the floor gave way. I was falling and so was Locke, but the avians had let out their wings and they were flying above us, trying to get back to the surface, but it was as if an invisible force dragged them down to me and Locke. Locke began to howl like a deranged wolf and sucked in a deep breath, then he blew the avians away so that it was just me and him falling through the void. We landed in a circle of light. Locke was wearing his tattered suit, and I was in the clothes that I had gone to bed in. He pointed a finger at me and began writing in the air._

_It felt as though a knife was being dragged across my body, cutting through my shirt and carving a deep gash in my chest. Blood began to pool at my feet, and I fell to my knees. My body was racked with the worst pain I had ever felt, all my nerves were firing off at once and my mind was a typhoon of impulses and fire. I was surprised that I was even still conscious. He walked up to me and shook his head in disapproval. He grabbed my head in his hands and looked me dead in the eyes, the utter lack of even the slightest mote of light matched the void that surrounded us. There was the bang of a gun shot and the snapping of bones, and the world around me dissolved entirely._

Needless to say I woke up in a cold sweat and out of breath.

* * *

Jeb: Well that's about all I can do. How do you feel?

Me: As though I had a stick of dynamite go off in my head, and that I missed an entire chapter.

Felix: You did.

Me: *facepalm* Oh well. Stinking English homework.

You gotta love those crazy dreams, this is what I get for reading up on the Brothers Grimm, it messes with everything that you've ever thought about nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Anyway, this wraps up the first part of the story so now we can move on to the next, so expect a major change in the future. Once again I apologize for my tardiness in updating. Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


	13. Chapter 13

Alright this is going to be a bit of a jump, so bare with me, but lets just say that a few months have passed between this chapter and the last one. Dun dun dun! What? A jump in the plot? Don't worry, I decided to be a little festive.

I own nothing!

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Chapter 13: Merry Christmas

Time passed uneventfully. Sigma pack got a mission Moscow to help contain a rogue experiment gone wild, and to my pleasure Epsilon pack was sent to Athens. But me and the other members of Alpha pack were given down time, although cabin fever set in, we blew it off by having a night in the town that ended with us running from the feds and a seriously peeved babysitter. But that's a story for another time, because Christmas is in only a few days, and we were all dieing because of anticipation.

The whole School had decked the halls, it was the one time of the year where the halls were any color besides white. Long strands of silver and gold tinsel were stapled to the walls, wreaths were hung on every door, snippets of holly adorned every desk and table, and the refrigerator in the cafeteria was stocked to the brim with eggnog. It was the one time of the year when the normally sterile atmosphere of the School seemed to warm up accompanied by the smell of home baked goods. Needless to say that this was everyone's favorite time of the year.

This year the chore of decorating the break room fell on Alpha pack, and dare I say that we did an outstanding job. Jeb had given us nothing short of a blank check, and we spent a day or two shopping at the mall for decorations of every sort. Not to mention the occasional poorly hid present. Me and Phoenix were in charge of finding all of the decor, while Odin was in charge of finding a suitably large enough tree. The mall was a buzz of parents and grandparents, swarming around like ants, trying to hunt and scavenge (for those who were late) for any and every possible present. We exchanged glances as we passed by the mall's resident Santa Claus, reminiscing on an old memory. When we were younger, Odin had taken us to the mall around Christmas time, and we forced him to go sit on Santa's lap. We couldn't help but laugh at the thought.

Odin was able to find find a tree that seemed to dwarf every tree around it. We even had to ask the scientists to bring in any extra ornaments that they had to cover the bare evergreen. Cords and cords of lights snaked around the tree constricting it in a wall of multi-colored light. Tinsel and glass ornaments reflected the light this way and that, giving the whole room and warm golden glow. The tree towered in the corner of the room, looming majestically over everything in the room. I let out a whistle in amazement as I took a step back to examine our work. Odin was on a ladder, stapling the last of the tinsel to the walls. You could hardly tell that it was the break room, even my chair and Odin's pool table had holly hanging off of it.

As Odin got off of the ladder, Phoenix let go and the two of them walked over to me. I was staring at the tree mesmerized, and I'm sure they were too. In fact the only reason we stopped looking at it was because Hades came in with boxes in each arm.

"Your back!" Phoenix was over joyed, we hadn't seen him since he left before our mission to Paris. Hades set the boxes down and spread his arms out. He gave me and Phoenix hugs, and he shook Odin's hand.

"How was New York?" Odin asked eying the two boxes on the floor.

"Oh you know, as exciting as the Institute can be. Lucky for the pack, we got to come back in time for the holiday, the others are really excited." Well yeah, it was either the Institute or here. "Oh I almost forgot!" He reached down and opened up a brightly wrapped box. He pulled out a tin that looked like it had been passed down through generations. The distinct smell of fruit cake filled the air, and our eyes all opened wide at what we assumed was impending doom. Hades noticed our disdain for even the mere smell of fruit cake, and he began to laugh at our reactions. "It's not for you guys, so don't worry... It's for Epsilon pack." We all laughed at the thought of Alex feverishly unwrapping a fruit cake. Hades reached back into the box and pulled out a plate wrapped in tin foil. "No, I got you guys a batch of freshly baked gingerbread men." The scent of gingerbread wafted into the air, and Hades set the plate back down.

"Oh, and we got hit again." He opened up the other box. It was full of mistletoe. Every year a box of mistletoe showed up at the school's doorstep, and no one's quite sure who does it. Hades pulled out a a piece of it and began looking around the room. "Well we might as well put it to good use." He said it sarcastically, but still, I'm sure the reaction form the three of us was purely priceless. He started laughing, and we did too once we got a good look at each other.

The incident with the mistletoe was all but forgotten as the night progressed. Jeb had called everyone into the cafeteria for a special dinner on Christmas Eve, to celebrate the successes of the years. The cafeteria was flooded with the School's staff, and the tables were covered in at least a dozen perfectly cooked turkeys. The clatter of silverware drowned out what little talking there was, the turkey was just that good. Of course as the dinner wore on, the onset of the infamous turkey comma steadily caused the amount of people in the room to diminish, leaving only those with the hardiest of constitutions and those with a truly cast iron gut at the tables. Odin and Hades had challenged each other to see who could eat more, it ended with both of them asleep, heads on the table with a turkey leg clutched in their hands. That of course resulted in all of the Erasers laughing their heads off at the sight of the two top pack leaders out cold.

When dinner was over I went back into the break room and plugged in the tree. I neglected to turn on any other lights, the heavenly glow from the tree sufficed. It sat down in my chair and turned it so that I was facing the tree. It was hard to believe that in only hours all of us would be sneaking out of our rooms at some point in the night to try and put our gifts under the tree. I didn't know when I would, but it would probably be around three. I sank into my chair and relished the silence, closing my eyes, letting the glow of the tree filter through my eye lids. I heard the door open and close, and then I saw a shadow cast on me. I opened one eye to see Phoenix leaning over me, mere inches away. I smiled and she smiled back.

"Merry Christmas sleepy head." She said. I opened my other eye and blinked a few times, adjusting to the light. She seemed to have a golden aura around her. She looked angelic, minus the wings. I sat up in my chair so that I was eye level with her. She was blushing, and I could see that she looked a little nervous.

"What is it?"

"I wanted to wait until tomorrow, but-" I cut her off by putting a finger to her lips.

"So did I." A smile grew behind my finger, we both knew where this was going. I withdrew my finger and she leaned in until she was right next to me, unbearably close. I could feel the warmth of her skin on mine. "Merry Christmas." I mumbled almost inaudibly. I leaned in to start the kiss that was waiting on both our lips. It was just the two of us there in the break room, with only the light of the tree. I couldn't have wished for a more romantic situation if I had planned one out. Her arms had slithered their way around my neck, and she was practically sitting on my lap. It felt like there was a fire place in the room, my skin was on fire, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end at the sensation of her lips on mine. It didn't matter what I got tomorrow, this was really all I wanted. I could have died right then and there and I would have been happy with my life, knowing that I had confessed to her my feelings, and was lucky enough to be loved back.

When the kiss ended she rested her head on my chest, both of us breathing heavily from the lack of oxygen. We stayed like that for a time, just being this close to each other was enough at this point. The seconds ticked away painfully quick, and before either of us realized it, it was eleven. We made our way back to our rooms, hand in hand. Our footstep the only noise in the dark hallway. Our hands separated when we went to our separate doors, the feeling of each other lingering on our lips and hands. But before either of us could open a door, we embraced each other one last time. Before we closed our door we looked back, a ridiculously large smile on our faces.

"Merry Christmas Felix."

"Merry Christmas Phoenix." Our doors clicked silently into the night. The last sound that anyone would admit to for the rest of the night. I didn't sleep, I just waited until three and then I slipped out of my room and crept my way to the break room. Hades was on his way to the room as well, bundles of boxes in hand. I eyeballed one labeled for me, and he saw the one I had gotten for him, but we silently agreed not to mention anything. I had only a handful of presents, and Hades looked like Santa Claus himself with all the boxes and bags he had. When we made it to the room and found that we were the only one there, he confided in me that this was his second trip. I noticed a large bag under the tree and then glanced at him. All he did was nod his head.

I was able to sleep soundly for the rest of the night, already satisfied with the holiday. What a shame that it only came once a year, but I suppose that's part of what makes it so special. I woke up the next morning and the halls were as silent as they were last night. Then it hit me. It was Christmas. I ran to the break room to find every one sitting amongst a mound of presents and wrapping paper. All of my presents had been mover to my chair and were organized like a pyramid. Odin basically had a fortress of presents on his pool table that he was laying siege to, Phoenix was next to the fish tank, and Hades and the other Erasers were scattered about the room.

I made my way through the mess of wrapping paper and boxes and found myself staring at the mound of presents on my chair. I snickered to myself, and dove into the pile. The first one was from Hades, it was a box of chocolate chip cookies that he'd gotten in New York, they had to be the best that I've ever had. Then there was one from Jeb, not surprisingly, it was a fruit basket. As time passed, the pile shrunk and the massive collective pile of wrapping paper grew. It was almost a contest every year to see how much we used. At the bottom of the pile I came across two presents. One was from Odin, and the other was from Phoenix. I unwrapped Odin's first, it was a complete collection of Shakespeare's works. I had most of them, but in separate volumes. Then there was also a compilation of stories from the Brothers Grimm, my list of unused quips was running short, so that would certainly come in handy.

Then there was the present from Phoenix. I delicately unwrapped it as though it would explode if I was rough with it. In it was a single piece of mistletoe, but she already pulled through with her gift last night. At the bottom of the box there was also a black pocket watch. It had an design on the outside that was riddled with fine details, and I could already hear the faint ticking of the gears. I pressed the button on the top of it and it flipped open. There was a picture of me and her on the inside, it was from when we had first met. We each looked a little awkward standing next to each other, after all we fell for each just moments before that picture was taken. I smiled at the unexpected gift, and the tender memories that it brought back. This had to have been the best Christmas that I had ever had.

* * *

OK, before you go all crazy on me for writing a Christmas chapter in the middle of October, in my defense I'd like to say that I didn't intend to do it. It just so happened that this was what happened next, and it happened to be mere days before Halloween. I'll tell you though, nothing is weirder then writing about Christmas in October, it really messes with your head. But I hope that it gave you a bit of a festive feeling.

Anyway, this chapter had the first of many jumps in time. I assure you that it is all part of the story, but I have four whole years to cover, and I can't just fill it with minutia. So I hope that I was able to do it well, because it wont be the last one I do. Jumping through time in the plot will also be used as a sort of division in the story, so pay attention because these are very important. Time flies when you're writing. Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


	14. Chapter 14

Well I hope that you all enjoyed your little detour into the holidays, because now we get back to the missions. Oh the joys of having a job that you have to do. Well it's more glamorous then that I assure you, what with all of the traveling to exotic locations, but nevertheless the story must go on!

I own nothing!

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Chapter 14: Call to Arms

In the aftermath of Christmas everything seemed to return back to normal at a disappointingly hasty pace. Before long the long streams of tinsel were stripped from the walls leaving them bare like an empty canvas, and tree that we had worked so hard to decorate had been stripped of all ornaments and lights and was chopped up and given away as firewood. The gingerbread men and chocolate chips cookies might as well have not even existed because I had eaten them all before I knew it, and the books Odin had given me had found their way to my over crowded bookshelf. The pocket watch though, never left my side, and I found myself checking the time more often then was commonly necessary.

Epsilon pack came back to the School about a day or two after the new year started. Me and Alex found each other in the hall, and I made a few quick cold and bitter comments to him about how cold it was in Moscow and how it resembled his personality. He threatened me but Jeb came around the corner before he could act on it.

It was about three in the afternoon and Jeb had called me and the pack in for a briefing on our next mission. I clicked my pocket watch closed and faced the white board at the front of the room. Jeb was standing in front of it with a slightly disgruntled look on his face, Odin was staring off into space, and Phoenix was swiveling her chair around out of boredom. I shot Odin a look of confusion, Jeb was just standing there not saying anything. Odin looked back and I could tell that he was equally confused. I gave Phoenix the same look and she just shrugged her shoulders. I glanced back at Jeb, his hands were on the table and his head was hung low, almost as if he didn't want to be there. There was a clicking from behind my chair, and everyone's attention was focused on the character who enter the conference room. A pair of hands were placed on the top of my chair and I could feel a cold iron grasp inches away from my head.

"What is it Jeb?" Alex said, not even trying to hide the fact that he was annoyed with the situation. He glanced down and frowned noticing that i was in the chair.

"Sit down Alex, your late as it is." Jeb responded irritated by some unexplained cause. Alex moved to the seat on the opposite side of the table mad that we weren't far enough apart. Jeb looked up at the four of us, his eyes were red as if he had been crying. "Alright, the four of you have a mission. And before any of you can protest or object, I'll have none of that thank you very much! It was decided that this mission was to dangerous for just Alpha pack and we decided that Alex should go as well." He turned around and picked up a dry erase marker. I exchanged glances with everyone at the table. We were all lividly mad at the situation, but none of us would object to a mission. Jeb made a crude drawing that was supposed to be Asia, he outlined Russia and practically slammed the marker down when he was down.

"The four of you are going to Siberia, we have an outpost there were we keep some of our more dangerous experiments and one of them has escaped. We need you to recover it as soon as possible, and alive if you can."

"What's the target in question?" Odin asked, assuming the leadership role, which I'm sure made Alex furious seeing as he played second to no one.

"You're going after what many people would call a yeti. During the Cold War, the Soviets tried to create a breed of super soldiers by breeding humans with orangutans. They failed miserably, but when the KGB collected intelligence about Itex's success in gene splicing, we reached an agreement with the communists to help them out in exchange for funding. When the Cold War ended we collected the yeti and destroyed all evidence of our connections with the Soviets. Although, we kept an outpost here." He pointed to his makeshift map. "At approximately o nine hundred hours eastern time, our staff lost control of the experiment and it escaped into the wilderness. This beast is capable of surviving in the frozen wasteland with amazing ease. It's carnivorous, and if it reaches Mongolia, we can have an international crisis on our hands. We can't let that thing continue to wonder around, you have an hour to pack everything you'll need. You'll be given further instructions upon your arrival at the outpost." He just stood there looking blankly at us as though he really didn't care what happened at that moment.

One by one, we got out of our chairs and headed for our rooms to pack. I was the last one of us to leave the conference room, when I reached the door way I looked back at Jeb. His head was low and he sniffled a little bit, whatever it was that was bothering him must have been indescribably important to him, Jeb was not the one to crack. I neglected to say anything comforting to him and I wordlessly made my way to my room.

I pulled out my suitcase and packed a few spare suits, you never knew what was going to happen, especially on a mission that had ties back to the Cold War, even Jeb didn't know half of the stuff that Itex did during that long and dim period in history. In fact the only two people that would would be the Director and Locke, in fact, he was probably the one that created the abomination that we were after now. I pulled out my passport and examined all of the stamps that it had on it. I wondered if I was even going to need it. There was a tap on my door and Phoenix poked her head in. she was already packed, with a suit case in each hand she came in.

"Do you know what's wrong with Jeb?" She asked concerned. I shook my head, it was puzzling to me too. Jeb was never one to lose it like this, sure he would have fits of anger and rage when things got out of hand, but he was never upset. Not like this. It was almost as if he was mad at himself. She motioned for the door. "Come on, Odin's waiting for us in the break room, he wants us to say bye to Hades." I picked up my suitcase and we headed for the break room. Hades was sitting on the couch and Odin was standing in front of him with his suit case right beside him.

"You ready?" We nodded. "Great, now all we have to do is wait for Alex." Hades shook his head in disbelief.

"I still can't believe that they're making him go with you, none of you, even him, want to go together. Sometimes I feel like they do this just to annoy us." He paused and looked at me, he grinned slightly. "But the three of you better be safe, I want all of to come back in one piece." He chuckled, but I failed to see the humor in his remark. He got up from the couch and gave me and Phoenix hugs and he shook Odin's hand. "Take care, Siberia's a wicked nasty place this time of year. The temperatures can drop below zero when the wind blows and it just stings at you until you can't feel a thing." He looked at all of us concerned. He was a good friend, he was looking out for all of us, it's a shame that our packs hardly had the same time off.

We picked up our suit cases and proceeded to leave the break room. I caught sight of the date on the calender, it was the fifteenth. Hades waved goodbye as the door closed behind us. It clicked shut and we were in the silence of the hallway again. There wasn't a word that was said among the three of us as we walked to the garage. There was a limo there waiting to take take us to the airport, we put our bags in the trunk and got in the car. Silently we all wished that it would just leave without Alex, Hades was right none of us wanted him to come, he didn't even want to go. We waited there in the limo until the hour that Jeb had given us to pack had expired. Just as we were about to leave Alex came in with a smile on his face. He knew that the limo wouldn't leave without him, and he was just prolonging the inevitable. He sat up front and we sat in the back. Not once during the ride to the airport did the window separating him from us roll down.

When we arrived at the airport, there was a Russian man in a suit there waiting for us. In a very thick accent he told us that we weren't going to be checking in through the customs. A shuttle took us to a restricted area of the airport, and there was a private jet waiting to take us to Siberia. Our escort mumbled something in Russian and someone came to take our bags into the plane. We scaled the steps and entered what appeared to be the inside of a bomb shelter. I shot a look at Odin and he cleared his throat, Phoenix crossed her arms and took a seat. I took a seat next to her, Odin sat behind us, and Alex sat in the back of the plane. The Russian sat a few rows in front me, he didn't say a word, but occasionally he would look back for reasons I didn't know.

Within a few hours we were in the middle of what I assumed was Siberia. But then again, everything around me looked exactly the same. The plane landed on a strip of semi-frozen pavement and stopped next to a bunker partly submerged in the snow drift. When the door was opened the temperature dropped almost instantaneously. I stepped outside and was blinded by the complete and utter white out that surrounded me. The hairs on the back of my head stood on end, not because of the cold, but from an ghostly sense of deja vu . I realized that I was still standing on the stairs leading off the plane when the Russian put his hand on my shoulder.

"Welcome to Siberia." I stepped off the stairs and walked to the bunker as fast as I could, my breath becoming clouds of fog in front of me. Odin and Phoenix were right behind me, they practically pushed me the lats ten feet, the sloes of my shoes started to freeze to the ground. When we were inside I looked back out at the white out. Alex cam walking in as if he was immune to the bitter gnaw of the cold. He grinned at the three of us wickedly once he saw how ill prepared we were.

"Shake it off, we haven't even started yet." He walked past us and headed deeper into the outpost. The Russian waited for us and escorted us into the conference room. Alex was already situated in a chair. We took our seats and a scientist came in, he looked like the senior manager of the outpost.

"I hope that the cold isn't to much of a problem, unfortunately it's going to be like this for at least a few more months." He spoke English better then our escort, but he was still clearly use to speaking Russian. A projector flickered to life and a picture came into focus. It was of a man, or at least what was supposed to be a man. He had long shaggy white hair, and looked more like a primate. It had dark beady eyes, and massive unwieldy hands that looked as if they had the capacity to destroy anything they touched. Then I caught sight of the scale on the side of the photo, the beast was at least three and a half meters tall. "This is _homo abominous _a.k.a. the Abominable Snowman, the experiment that you have been ordered to return if possible. If circumstance wont allow it, you'll have to exterminate it.

"I must warn you, the beast is incredibly strong, capable of lifting over a mega-gram with ease. It has a brain with the capacity to solve most problems that it encounters so beware, the longer it is exposed to you, the more it will know about you, and how to take you down. It's capable of traversing the terrain with relative ease, and it's resistant to the extreme cold, that's why we've been unable to find it up to this point." The image changed to a map of the surrounding topography. "Its last known location was here, approximately ten kilometers southwest of this location.

"We will be supplying you with everything you need to track, incapacitate and return it here. As well as everything that you will need to survive the elements. I'll lead you to the armory." He walked towards the back of the room and opened up the door. All of us exchanged glances with each other. Alex got up and walked out of the room. He stopped and didn't look back.

"You coming?"

* * *

Well I told you things were going to be returning to what could be considered normal. But apparently normal means tracking the Abominable Snowman through the frozen wastelands of Siberia. Oh well, just stick around to see what happens during the mission, because I promise that you will not want to miss it. And as for your interesting bit of information for the day, the whole thing about the Soviets making the breed of super soldiers is real. They also preformed the first successful head transplant (with a monkey of course).

I'd like to thank everyone for reading my story so far, your reviews and feedback are much appreciated. TBC, so all in due time.


	15. Chapter 15

Well now we get to see what is going to happen on the hunt for the Abominable Snowman. I promise a surprise towards the end and a lot of little details and insight into the story, so pay attention, you might just pick up a few things.

I own nothing!

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Chapter 15: Frozen Heart, Boiling Blood

Almost reluctantly we got out of our chairs and went to the armory. Alex seemed to be a little anxious, he wanted to see what "toys" we got to play with this time around. The collection of escaped experiments was always fun, especially when it was something rather odd and mysterious, but this, this was borderline ridiculous in my book. The halls of the outpost were gray like the concrete that they were built out of, and the sterile smell that flooded the air of the School was lacking. I couldn't tell if this was a positive or a negative.

The armory was the biggest room in the outpost, mostly because it was also the control room and break room, but still. Guns lined the walls, and vials of a strange yellow liquid were being poured into darts that were placed in cases. Alex let lose an evil looking smile, and made his way over to the guns that were being prepared for scientist who briefed us walked over to a computer monitor and pulled up a file that resembled a chemical formula.

"This this the toxin with which you will subdue our rogue monster. It's powerful enough to fell a full grown African elephant with a single dart, so pray that you wont have to fire this thing more then once." I shot a look over at Alex who had preoccupied himself with one of the guns designed to fire the darts.

"That wont be necessary, we don't have a need for guns." Odin said in a tone that refused to be rebutted. The scientist shot him a concerned look as if Odin had just jumped off the deep end, he looked at Alex and then back at Odin. "Except him, he'll be handling the heavy weaponry." I smiled on the inside, he was sticking up for me. For some reason I had always felt uncomfortable in the presence of a gun, we were supposed to carry them whenever we went on a mission, but Odin and Phoenix didn't carry them to make me feel comfortable, all the other Erasers followed suit. They would carry them, but they would never use them. Well, everyone except Alex. He ran his hand along the barrel and picked it up, putting his eye to the sight, getting a feel for a weapon that he knew that only he would be using. The scientist walked over to a cabinet and pulled out four overstuffed arctic survival jackets.

"These are for you, you can't allow yourself to be exposed to the cold for very long, you can fall victim to hypothermia in a matter of minutes, especially when the wind blows. There's a tub of gloves and goggles on the table over there, and stock up on hand warmers, they can save your lives." We looked at each other with just the faintest hint of concern in our eyes. We knew it would be cold, but seriously, we didn't know it was going to be this cold. "You will be using a modified snowmobile to traverse the tundra, you don't want to stray to far from it, because if you get caught in a blizzard, you can easily lose sight of it and once you're out there without a way back, you can consider yourselves dead, because nobody is going to find you." After that last remark the air went silent, and the faint chill of the air began to settle on us all. He snickered, as if he had just played some sick joke on us.

Alex shook his head and resumed checking out the gun. We went over to the jackets and found ones that fit, Phoenix stocked up on surplus hand and pocket warmers, and Odin helped himself to a mug of hot chocolate while reading the more specific details of the mission, like how in the world we were going to get the experiment back. I looked over at the scientist, he was at the computer putting in a report of the day's events, he was clearly displeased with the fact that the experiment was out there. I propped myself against a wall so that I could see what everyone was doing, I folded my arms trying to conserve my body heat, the cold seemed to creep its way in here. Was there anyplace around here that was remotely warm?

"Hey Big Bad, far away do you think that I could take it down from?" Alex said looking at me through the sights of the gun. I was about to respond when Phoenix interjected.

"Hopefully you'll be able hit him when he's right on top of you."

"Him? The thing is a monster, an it. Once you say that it's anything but, you might as well consider it a human. And you know, we might not have the get so close if Big Bad wasn't afraid of guns. It's not like they're going to kill kill you." He cocked it, it sounded like a shotgun.

"Guns don't kill people Alex, people who pull the trigger do." I sneered back without looking at him. There was an awkward stillness in the air that clung to it like the morning frost.

It wasn't long after that little dispute that we were ready to venture off into the white out in search of the experiment. Each of us was bound up tightly in layer after layer of clothing, Odin was driving the snowmobile with Phoenix behind him, and I was behind her. Alex was on another with the gun strapped to the seat with a case full of the toxic darts. Odin glanced at the radar screen mounted in front of him, his grip on the handles tightened slightly once he realized how isolated we were.

Everywhere I looked all I could see was white. It wasn't normal, it wasn't natural. It seemed bleached, artificial, almost alien in nature. A world untouched by the hands of man, pure and clean. But in the lack of life, the bitter embraced of death had a choke hold on the land, it was unsettling how calm it was, the world seemed to scream silently for release. It was all so familiar and yet so faint. A far off memory that I couldn't recall, like the fading end of a dream, haunting, and yet so vivid that it can be completely recollected. My head began to hurt as through it would split in two, and my body grew cold, not from exposure, but from the inside. I closed my eyes, the light from the world seeped through my eyelids, there was no darkness here, and yet, it was everywhere all at once.

Almost subconsciously I shifted into my Eraser form, as did everyone else. It felt nice have fur for once, it was like having a space blanket wrapped around you. My clawed fingers felt cramped on the inside of my gloves, and my body felt confined in the layers of clothing I was in. It was a burden that I had to bear regardless, experiencing frostbite was not one of the things that was on my bucket list. It was awkward having to wear goggles with a snout, I'm amazed that we managed somehow.

After what had seemed like an eternity compressed into about half an hour we arrived at what was supposed to be the last known location of the experiment. Alex unloaded the gun and ironically loaded it with a small handful of the darts. I could see the pleasure in his eyes, anyone in there right mind would give Alex a loaded gun, not only if he was in his human form, but as an Eraser, corrupted by the blood lust. That was simply a recipe for disaster, and I wanted no part of it.

"So where is A-bomb?" Phoenix asked not expecting an answer, clearly there was none. Every one of us scanned the horizon and everything between, not expecting to find the slightest sign of it. If there was any, it had been erased by the white wash of snow. Out of instinct from the lupine DNA in me, I sniffed the air picking up the ever so faint sent of rotting flesh. My head jolted in the direction of the scent, and moments later everyone else picked up on it.

"Bingo." Alex muttered to himself, and he ran off into the abyss, disappearing soundlessly behind a snow drift. I exchanged looks with everyone and we began following him on foot. I thought that the snow would be deeper, but it was mostly just permafrost, the ground was only about six inches under. We couldn't find Alex, all we could do was follow his footsteps, which were growing in pace by the minute. The problem with keeping pace with someone you can't see is that you have to guess how fast they were going, but we could tell that he was running now. Had he found the experiment?

After we passed over yet another identical snow bank we found Alex crouched down, with the gun clutched to his chest. We silently crept up to him, and he motioned for us to stay down. The air seemed to have the foul stench of rotting meat, as is something had died and had actually had the chance to rot. But in this weather it would freeze first, which meant.

"It's right over this hill, you should see the beast, it's massive, easily twice as big as any of us." I couldn't eel what he was thinking right then, it was somewhere in between excitement and anxiety. We crept up to the top of the hill, just letting the bare minimum of ourselves to be exposed. It truly was massive, bordering titanic in size, It had long raggedy white hair that covered its whole body, and its hands, they were clenched into fists that could be compared to watermelons. Its size alone was intimidating, I'd hate to see what kind of strength it possessed. We huddled up, and Odin leaned in, already with a plan in mind.

"Here's what we're going to do, Felix you and I will sneak around opposite sides of the hill and surprise it, when it's startled we can ambush it and serve as a distraction. Phoenix, you will be backup, and I'll signal you if we need you to come out and serve as a distraction. Meanwhile, Alex, you need to hang back here and shoot it from the top of the hill after we have distracted it completely. Aim for the heart because I don't know how far it's going to penetrate it, the toxin should do the rest, after it's down, I want you to shoot it again, just to make sure that it's unconscious. Once we have the situation under control, I'll activate the homing beacon, and the retrieval unit will come to collect it." We all nodded in acquiescence, it was as good of a plan as any of us could have come up with given our frozen circumstances.

Odin began to creep around the right side of the hill, and I went to the left. Alex crawled to the top of the hill poking the tip of the barrel over the peek, and sneaking a few daring looks at the lurking behemoth. It's mouth hang open giving a perfect view of its sick yellow teeth and its slimy black tongue. It was facing the hill that Phoenix was behind and Alex was hiding on top of. I could see the tip of Odin's hood from behind the edge of the hill. the tension was unbearable in those few moments before Odin gave the signal. I could hear my heart pumping, the adrenaline already in my blood, the natural decision to fight or run already made.

Then I saw Odin stick his hand out, one by one his fingers falling, the countdown was upon us. Three, two, one. Chaos.

Odin exploded from his hiding spot and was on top of the experiment before it knew what was happening. in my mad dash at it I ripped off my gloves exposing my sharp claws. Odin was running this way and that, throwing the occasional slash at the beast, trying to throw it of balance, it loomed over head, a Gulliver amongst us Lilliputians. It swung a thick tree trunk like arm at me but I dropped to the ground, feeling the rush of cold air over my head. My fingers hit the frozen ground and the cold sent a chill up my spine that alerted me to a massive fist coming down on me. I rolled out of the way and ripped at the experiment's wrist. It roared at an unthinkable high volume and an inconceivably low tone. It was more of a roar then anything else.

Odin saw the opportunity and jumped on its back and started slashing away at it, bits of thick shaggy fur scattering in the biting cold of the wind. The beast reared back and grabbed Odin in its ape like hands, I thought I heard a rib crack, then it threw him into the snow not expecting him to get back up. Odin scrambled to his feet almost instantaneously and braced himself for whatever would come next. I had gotten to my feet and was tearing away at one of its legs, running between them to avoid being scooped up and crushed. Odin ran at it when it was looking down to see where I had gone, knowing Odin he was going to kick it in the head, but instead the beast looked up and charged at Odin. He jumped out of the way just in time. He put his hands to his mouth and yelled.

"Alex now!" I saw the barrel of the gun peak over the hill, now all Odin needed to do was get it to face the hill. Odin made a mad dash in my direction, the experiment had turned around and was charging at him. All I could do there was stand in shock, unable to move away from the scene before me. The beast was gaining and fast, Odin had no choice to jump, it was either that, or being crushed under the bulk of the enraged Goliath. The monster swung its arm at Odin, it hit or at least I think it did because in that exact same moment there was a bang from over head and the beast stopped dead in its tracks. Odin was sent flying from the impact of the arm, his coat was ripped from the claws on it's hands, and he landed in the snow face down.

The experiment's beady black eyes darted around trying to find the source of the attack. Alex got up on his feet and raised the sight to his eye.

"Despicable." He mumbled, he fired again hitting the beast square in the heart. The experiment roared another horrifying scream of pain and ran off into the blinding snow. Alex jumped down from the hill and started to run after it, as he passed by he shot me a look of wicked satisfaction that he now got to do things the way he wanted. It wouldn't be long before he came back, the toxin was already in the experiment's blood stream and it would stop running soon. I looked over at Odin expecting to see him on his feet, but he wasn't. He was still on the ground, and he wasn't moving.

I ran over to him, skidding the last few inches on my knees. I rolled him over, his eyes stared blankly out into space. He wasn't breathing, and the onset of the cold was already claiming him. He was dead. I stayed there, motionless, for what seemed like another excruciating eternity. I refused to believe that he was gone, he couldn't be. Odin was the pack leader, and pack leaders don't die without a fight. He was an Alpha, and Alphas don't die, they're heroes. I kept wishing it to be undone, replaying those vital few seconds in my head again and again and again. I thought that this was some sick joke, that he was going to wake up and start laughing. But no matter how badly I wished it, he wouldn't. my hands started to tremble, the cold and the shock finally setting in. I lifted one shaking paw and placed it on his face, pulling his eyelids down, not able to bear the sight of his stone cold dead gaze.

I heard the sound of snow crunching and my head shot up out of reflex. Phoenix was right about where Odin had been hiding, she was on her knees, her head in her hand, trying to unsee the image she had just been exposed to. I clenched one hand out of anger, at who, I'm not so sure. All I remember was that I was angry, my blood like an inferno in my veins, and my skin was cold. A shell of desensitization, clouding the blaze of emotion that raged inside of me.

Part of me died that day with Odin, and the sad thing is, the feeling of death, it felt all too familiar.

* * *

Well there you have it, Odin is dead. D-E-A-D, and he's not coming back you can be certain of that. And it's not over yet, A-bomb is still out there, and so is Alex. And he has a gun. But of course let's not forget how poor Phoenix is taking all of this, after all her big brother just got killed. Stick around because things are starting heat up. TBC, so all in due time.


	16. Chapter 16

Odin is dead, and A-bomb is still at large. Well, not for long, not if Felix and Alex have anything to say about it. Rage and anger are powerful emotions that are not to be trifled with. And lets not forget that Phoenix is an emotional wreck, and that Alex is still out there. Things are going to get dicey.

I own nothing!

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Chapter 16: The Great Hall of Asgard

I'm not sure how long I was there in the snow with Odin's dead body in front of me. I just remember that the only thing I could see was him and Phoenix, and the only thing I could hear was her crying. Her tears melting the snow beneath her, and the bitter cold surrounding the three of us in lonely isolation. The feeling like nothing could possibly better the situation, utter hopelessness with no chance of salvation. A small bitter taste of the freezing center of hell, just as Dante had described.

I was on the breaking point, and for the sake of my own sanity I rose to my feet, failing in every attempt to block out my memory. I was like a zombie, moving slowly and awkwardly, I was moving in the direction that the experiment and Alex had run off in. I had to see this thing through to the end, even if it would kill me.

As I trudged through the snow, the image of Odin's body and Phoenix crying was burned in my mind, dwarfing the sensation of how my fingers were now burning from the exposure to the icy sting of the wind. My eyes scanned the horizon begging the fates to give me a sign that Alex had killed the abomination, although part of me now wished that he hadn't yet, that way I could have the pleasure of doing it myself. Returning it to the outpost wasn't an option now, we were on a mission to erase it from the face of existence. And in my rage I wanted to see the fear in its eyes as it came to realization that this was the end.

I was bounced back and forth between despair and fury, a terrifying combination that scrambles the mind beyond comprehension and sensible thought. One moment I would be on the verge of a meltdown, and then the next my blood would boil and I could feel the blood lust creeping up on me. It was like some sort of shadow that followed me in a world where the light came from nowhere. I was mad, and I didn't know who to be mad at. Myself? The yeti? Odin? Or was I just mad at the world for being so sick twisted and cruel?

Somewhere amidst the confusion and the rage I heard a roar and a bark. Alex, and better yet, the experiment. I ran up the hill in front of me and found the gun at the top, Alex was at the base fighting for his life with the experiment. he was in his Eraser form and was terrifying to look at. he had ripped off his gloves and blood was freezing to his claws. The experiment had long gashes in its sides and a small stream of blood ran down one of its arms. The toxin was already at work and the experiment's strength was waning low. Alex was bracing himself for the next attack, he seemed more composed and his actions were more precise. He hadn't given himself to the blood lust this time.

I ran down the hill and leaped onto the experiment's back, clawing away at its shoulders. Alex had seen me running down the hill and took his chance to charge at it, making it stagger, trying to adjust its slowing reflexes to now having to deal with two threats. I got off its back before it could grab me and Alex had started to run back up the hill. The beast turned around and started to run after Alex, I ran as fast as my legs would carry me and miraculously I got in front of it. It came to a stop so suddenly that I hadn't anticipated it, and it was able to knock me into the air with a swing of its right arm. I learned first hand that I did hear one of Odin's ribs crack, the force behind that hand was pure muscle.

I landed in the snow in a heap, a sharp pain pierced my side, and I dismissed it without another thought. I saw Alex near the top of the hill, he wouldn't have time to get the gun and fire in time, it would be on top of him and it would be too late. I launched out of the snow and roared at the beast trying to startle it, whether it was the toxin at work, or my ridiculous attempt at a distraction I don't know, but the behemoth slowed just enough for Alex to make his way to the gun and brought the sight to his eye. He muttered something I couldn't hear because of the sound of the gun shot.

The dart was lodged in the chest of the experiment right about where its heart should be, the experiment let out a sharp gasp and took a step back. Then another, and another, until it fell back face up in the snow. Its breathing was labored and its fingers curled into a fist. Alex and I walked over to it, staring down at its face. You could see the human behind the primate, the soul stripped of humanity, and in its place a monster was born. There was no emotion in its blank stare, no regret, why would it feel any, even if it could feel. I shot a quick glance at Alex, he had a frown on his face, as if he was displeased with something. He raised the gun again, and he sighed.

"Pitiful." He pulled the trigger and a dart lodged itself between the experiments eyes. Moments later its breathing ceased, and its eyes flickered shut. It was dead. Alex's frown grew into a smile that made the Grinch look like a saint. I couldn't tell which I was supposed to look at, or better yet, who to be angry at. The monster that lay before had just killed one of my best friends and comrades, but on the other hand, if Alex had pulled the trigger sooner, Odin could still be alive.

The inside of my head was a pinball machine, part of me wanted to see Alex pump the experiment full of toxic darts, another part of me wanted to run back to Phoenix, another wanted to bring the beast back to life just so I could kill it. Amidst that storm of internal chaos all my body could comprehend was to continue standing there. Alex started to walk away, gun slung over his shoulder, his hands began to return to their human form.

"Come on Big Bad, there's no happily ever after in life, get used to it." His words hit me like fist to the face, and that was enough to bring me back to the cold reality that I was doomed to be in. I paced quietly behind him, not wanting to look back at what we had left behind. Neither of us said a word until we got back to Phoenix and Odin's body.

We found her on her knees, clutching Odin's head in her trembling arms. Tears were starting to freeze on her face, Alex stopped in his tracks while I walked up to her and wrapped my arms around her, failing in my attempt to supply much needed comfort. Alex walked over to Odin's body and rifled through his pockets, he retracted his hand with a small metal cylinder clutched in his fingers. He stood up, towering over us and looked at us coldly and unsympathetically. "I'm going to go put the homing device next to the experiment, you two can load the body onto one of the snowmobiles and get out of here." It was somewhere between a demand and a request, and the way he sent the word body clearly showed how little he really cared. He disappeared into the snow, the gun still on his back.

My attention became focused on Phoenix and her brother. Her hands were red and covering her even redder face. The words to described the scene escaped me, and yet it haunted me, and the image always would as long as I lived. I slid one arm down, trying to prepare myself for moving Odin's remains, but she grabbed my arm and threw it back on her. She didn't want me to leave, she didn't want me to do anything. I was her only support now, and I had to be there for her. Odin would have wanted it that way, and if I failed he would probably come back to haunt me. I was her rock, the only thing that kept her from falling into a state of complete and utter despair. I was the one who would bear not only my burden, but hers as well. The time came when her tears began to stop, she was exhausted emotionally, drained. An empty shell shell, devoid of emotion, I had to help fill her up, but this was neither the time nor the place. I got her to her feet and walked her back to one of the snowmobiles. I turned it on, trying to let the heat of the engine keep her warm in freezing temperature.

Reluctantly I left her to retrieve Odin's body, reassuring her that I would be right back. Half way to the hallowed scene of the battle, I began to hear footsteps behind me. I smiled, knowing full well that no one would see me. She was always more concerned with the well being of others then her own. I stopped in front of Odin and waited for her to stop at my side. I glanced down at his face and then up at the direction that Alex had walked off in, I saw him returning with the gun slung over his shoulder and the same look of displeasure on his face.

He stopped in front of us, looking at us numbly, immune to empathy and the pain that we were feeling. Without a word between the three of us I picked up Odin, one arm in the crook of his knees, and the other halfway up his back . His arms hung limp, waving to no one in the slight breeze, and his head fell back. Thankfully his eyes didn't open on the way back to the snowmobiles, I didn't want to live another second with his eyes fixated on me.

The same silence that was present when the three of us congregated at his body traveled with us on our way back tho the outpost. The scientist was sitting at his computer when we arrived, shocked at the suddenness of our return. Alex set the gun down on a table in the armory, and pulled up a chair, he just sat there staring at the clock, watching each second tick by. I had set Odin down on a table, and pulled up a chair for Phoenix to sit in. I walked over to the scientist and ordered him out of his chair, he was clearly scared from the look in his eyes. I wasn't trying to be intimidating, I just came off that way.

Not caring for whatever the scientist was working on I closed out everything until I was staring at a blank desktop. I pulled up the list of programs and clicked on a restricted file. It asked for identification code and my password. There were a multitude of passwords that we used to notify the School how our missions ended. Some of which were overused and became cliches, and some had never been used. One was in the forefront of my mind, and I was worried as to how it would be received. I let out a heavy sigh, loaded with all the burden of my troubled soul, and I typed in one word. Valhalla. I hit enter, and within seconds a reply appeared on the screen confirming that the message was sent.

Valhalla. It was the code that we used when one of the breed was added to the list of those who would be remembered for their service. The K.I.A. The most morbid thing of all was that I was the first one to ever use that code, Odin was the first Eraser to ever die on a mission. The thought of it sowed the seeds of nightmares in my mind. If Odin could die, what about the rest of us? Were we not as invincible as we thought we were?

For some reason my mind was drawn back to the code word. Valhalla. It was the grand hall of Asgard, the world the viking afterlife. And in it vikings who had died in battle would go there to feast and battle for all eternity with the Norse gods, among them was Odin, king of the gods. The bitter irony added no solace. I was suddenly overcome with a flood of anger directed at no one in particular, and with no where to direct it, it expressed itself all on its own. I slammed my fist on the keyboard, breaking a few of the keys. Alex's head shot up at the unexpected outburst, and Phoenix jumped in her chair. I turned to apologize for startling her, her face was lined with the ghostly trails of tears, and her eyes were hollow. The forest groves that seemed so inviting to my soul were now shrouded in a dark haze, as if an infestation of blackthorns had overrun it, choking out the light and life that was her soul.

I wish I could say something to her, but all words of comfort seemed meaningless and insignificant at that moment. Because at that moment the world began to fall apart, and there are no words I could say to make the end of the world seem any better.

* * *

Well, things are about as depressing as they could get right now. But of course if you know me, I can always make the situation at hand worse. *smiles evilly* The leader of the most powerful pack of Erasers is dead, the question becomes, how is the rest of the company going to react to this shocking development? Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


	17. Chapter 17

I live! After one of the most long and grueling weekends of my life, I finally had the time to update. Oh wonder of wonders! Well... not really, after all, Odin just died in a most unfortunate twist of the plot. What is in store for everyone as they return to the School? I know, but you have to find out.

I own nothing!

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Chapter 17: Individuality

Considering that this was the first time any of the breed had died on a mission, no one was really sure how to handle the situation. The scientists didn't know what to do and the outpost was riddled with indecision. Before to long, the weather had cleared up enough for us to make the return flight home. We had Odin placed in a body bag that was then carried on a stretcher. I felt like I was attending a funeral as I watched Odin's body get lifted into the private jet. My sigh turned into a thick cloud of fog in front of my face.

Alex sat towards the back, and me and Phoenix sat next to the stretcher which had to be laid down in the aisle because of its length. Her finger squeezed their way in between mine, and she held my hand as though if she didn't I would die. She didn't want to lose me too, not when I was all that she had left in this world. My eyes would bounce back and forth, checking on Phoenix and then a quick glance at Odin, reassuring myself that nothing else would happen. It wasn't long before I realized just how much the events of the day had worn away at me. I was mentally exhausted, and my body was still in shock from the intense cold, and all the while I had to be the support for Phoenix.

I closed my eyes, wanting the world to disappear into a dream, I wanted to open them up to find out that this was all a horrible nightmare. But my eyes didn't open, they remained shut. The exhaustion got the better of me and I lost sense of where I was or what I was doing. The world around me was shadow, an abyss that I was familiar with, one where I could find minuscule remnants of solace.

_Before I knew what had happened, I found myself back in the snowy wasteland of Siberia. Or at least I thought I was. There was no contour of the land, just a flat plain, the only dot of darkness was my shadow which grew underneath my feet. It spread over the void like an ink blot, blackening a clean sheet of paper. It wasn't long before everything around my was as black as a starless night sky, and yet a light remained, its source was hovering above my head. A single incandescent light bulb flickered on and off. Periodically the flickering would become so intense that it created a strobe effect, and my eyes started to play tricks on me. A brick pattern would flash around me, and the shadow of chains covered the ground. And then he was there. Locke._

_There he was, sitting not even fifteen feet away from me, chains bound him at his ankles and his neck. His arms were bound in the same straight jacket that I had last seen him in. He had a look on his face that was the epitome of an oxymoron. He mouth was twisted into a sickening smile that made the pit of my gut feel burdened with guilt, and his soulless obsidian eyes were heavy with disappointment. He shook his head and scanned me analytically with a hasty sweep of his eyes. _

_"You're troubled, I can sense a lot of stress about you." He was looking down at the ground not at my face._

_"It doesn't concern you."_

_"You're not Atlas, Felix. Everyone has a breaking point, we are all imperfect." He lifted his head and stared at me, as if trying to decipher a hidden truth. "I know what's on your mind Felix." I looked at him this time, judging whether or not he really did. "You don't know how to handle loss, no one really does."_

_"What do you want?" I asked him with my arms crossed over my chest, irritated that there was nothing I could hide from him._

_"I want to know how you are going to handle it, surely you must be full of conflicting emotions. It's not wise to bottle them up, they can cause you to act irrationally and lose focus. After all, the loss of a leader is one that isn't taken lightly." On the inside I was confused beyond reason, but I couldn't afford to let him know that. Still he smiled as if he already knew of my confusion. "Your upset because Odin is dead." _

_"I said it doesn't concern you!" It came out angry, it couldn't be helped, not now. "It's none of your business!"_

_"Oh but you're mistaken my boy, it is my business. All of you are my business, and now that the first petal has fallen I realize that time is short. Short for me, and you." He glanced at the light bulb above my head watching it flicker, and then he looked back me. "Odin's death was not because of chance, fate has always had its hand in the affairs of the living, unfortunately, many are too blind to see that. But not you, you can see beyond that, you just don't know how to yet." He stood up in terrible majesty, intimidating to look at, he was bound in chains but still, with him, anything seemed possible._

_"What are you saying?"_

_"Cast off the chains that bind you to this reality, you have such potential right in front of you and it pains me to see how blind you are. Why do you resist? Reach out and take it!" He stopped his rant, he was short of breath. I turned away from him, he still made no sense, just like he always had. Not knowing where to go__, seeing as how every direction led to the abyss__, I took a step away from him. I stopped when I heard him again, this time though, he was in my head._

_You can't walk away from fate, sooner or later you'll wind up back where you started, and when you do, I'll be waiting there._

_I turned back to find him standing right behind me. He had a gun in his hand and he had it pointed right between my eyes. Before he pulled the trigger I caught a glimpse of him smiling._

My eyes snapped open, taking in everything as fast as they could. I was still on the plane, Phoenix had her head on my shoulder, and Alex was in the back staring out the window. I pulled out my pocket watch and looked at it, the design was detailed down to the minutia, truly a peace of craftsmanship. I was about to open it to check the time when the pilot's voice buzzed in over the intercom. He said that we would be arriving shortly.

When we arrived at the airport, Jeb, Hades and the rest of Beta pack were waiting for us_. _Alex walked right by everyone and went straight for the limo. Hades, Jeb and I moved the stretcher into the back of the limo and Phoenix was walked to the limo by the others. She started crying again, Hades gave her a hug that lasted as long as she wished. We just stood there until she was done. Alex had taken the seat up front so Jeb sat in the back with the rest of us. He was taking it as hard as the rest of us, his face was solemn, and it looked as though he hadn't slept since I sent in the report. Hades gave me a hug too, knowing that he was there for me helped a little.

It felt like riding in a hearse, and the feeling was mutual. Out of depression or respect none of us said a word on the ride back to the School, and when we arrived, all of the Erasers stationed at the School waited outside for our arrival. One by one we got out of the limo, Jeb and Hades carried the stretcher inside, leaving me Phoenix and Alex standing in front of the breed. They were concerned, and afraid, none of us knew what to do. As if possessed by a courage that I never knew existed I stepped forward.

"The death of a hero is tragic, one that we are all feeling the effect of. All of us knew him in some way, and I doubt that he would want us to continue on the way we are. Knowing that you all care is enough." At least I wished it was. I walked into the School with Phoenix right behind me, Alex followed a ways off, after we were all in, one by one, the rest of the packs filed in and went about their days as well as they could. I told Phoenix to go to her room, reluctantly she did, knowing that I had her best interests in mind.

I went to the lab to go see Jeb, he knew that I was coming, he was the only one in the room. His elbows were on the table, and his head was in his hands. The door clicked silently behind me, and I sat at the opposite end of the table. The only noise in the room was the ticking of the clock on the wall. He looked up at me, I could hardly see his face through his fingers, but I could see that he was exhausted.

"What happened?" The life in his voice was dead, and it sounded as though he too was emotionally distraught.

"We were confronting the experiment and it got a hold of him before Alex could shoot it with the tranquilizer, the impact killed him." Jeb let out a sigh, his head rose and he looked me in the eyes.

"There is no good that can come from me apologizing." He paused. "But policy dictates that there be no funeral for him. Felix, since you and Phoenix are the only members of Alpha pack left, and given the emotional state of Phoenix right now, you are the only one fit for replacing him as the leader of Alpha pack. You will not be getting another member of the pack, it will remain as it is now, Odin really was irreplaceable. Heroes can't be replaced." There was another pause. "I'll leave you to your business." His head fell back into his hands, and I got up from my chair.

The sterile look of the white walls seemed dim, in fact everything seemed a little gray. The drive that controls the progress of the daily routine seemed as if it wasn't good enough. Needless to say, the entire School was as silent as a graveyard. The air itself seemed to have an unusually solemn stillness to it. All missions had been put on hold, and the world itself seemed as if it didn't spin in the wake of Odin's death. The news was shocking to most people, and those who didn't show it, really were. To all it seemed as if it was impossible, Odin couldn't die, he was the leader of Alpha pack, he was a man among men, a hero to us all. Even the scientists were taken back by the suddenness of it all. All testing and experiments were put on hold, and the constant humming of computer fans was absent in the laboratories. It wasn't long before the news spread throughout Itex, the whole science department slowed almost to the point of gridlock. Time as a variable was lost, and the current date became a mystery as one day seamlessly blended into another.

After what I had assumed to be a few days, I found myself in the break room. I had a moment to myself, so I sank into my chair with a sigh and closed my eyes. I tried to calm my mind, trying to silence the perpetually spinning gears. Letting my guard down for even a moment of peace was worth it. I immediately regretted the action when Alex walked into the room. One of my eyes snapped open, watching his every move. He slouched his way over to the couch and took up the whole thing with his legs extended in front of him. He shot me a cold unpromising look, and then stared at the clock.

"Jeb want to see you, says it's something about a new assignment." He said it begrudgingly, he wanted a mission as soon as possible, not only for an opportunity to get away from me, but to get away from the School. Glad to be rid of his icy presence, I made my way to the briefing room. Jeb was in his chair at the far end of the table, a stack of papers on each side of him. His clear disdain for paperwork was visible on his face. The door closing behind me alerted him to my presence. He motioned for me to take a seat, and I took my seat at the opposite end of the table. He scrawled his signature on one last piece of paper and the set the pen down, looking at me. He wanted to smile, I could see it in his eyes, but the recent events of the past prevented him from doing so.

"You sent for me?" A serious look came over his face as though this was hard for him.

"Yes, I called you hear because there is something that up to this point I've neglected to tell you."

* * *

Oh yes Jeb, there is a multitude of things that have happened up to that point that you have neglected to tell him. I wonder, what ever could it be? But aside from that. The loss of a leader is awful, good ones are few and few between. It's even worse when you lose a member of your own family, and to make the situation impossibly even more worse is when a psychotic madman invades your dreams. Is there no end to the torment that I can create? If you know me well enough, you already know that answer. *laughs evilly*

Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


	18. Chapter 18

To bad, now you'll have to wait until the next chapter to find out what Jeb wanted to talk to Felix about, because, it's time for another thrilling installment of The Book of Locke! Yet another dive into the mind of the criminally insane, and more back story yeah! Pay close attention, this chapter is littered with minutia that just might prove important in the future...

I own nothing!

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Chapter 18: The Book of Locke part 2

_The progress on the avians has been slow and frustrating, time after countless time I am met with crushing disappointment and failure, all the more to "erase". Constructing a breed of humans from the double helix up is possibly the most daunting task that I have ever had to accomplish. All of my past work has involved the alteration of a being all ready in existence, changing a specified portion of the genome to match that of another. But ninety percent of the human genome has no affect on the development of the body and mind, what a vast reservoir of untapped potential. I plan to do more then just create humans that can fly, for that I only need two percent, and eight to make then resemble humans. That means I have ninety percent that have complete control over. Perhaps there is more that I can do then just give these experiments wings. After all as the fates had their hands in it, I can read minds, why not give these special creatures their own powers to separate them from the likes of my other failures. _

_There is a young man in the lab who has caught my eye, a man by the name of Batchelder. He's taken an interest in my work and has spent well over a fortnight working on making sure that the two percent that will be avian DNA will be flawless. He has a terrifying intellect at his disposal, perhaps a possible successor to me, for as the months and years pass by, I've seen many a decade come and go. I feel that my time is coming to a close, and if by chance I fail to succeed, I can die peacefully knowing that my work will be continued by one so capable. _

_Its been a while since I last wrote in this book, and much has happened, The Director has recently come under the idea that we as a staff were not committed wholeheartedly to the Recombinant DNA project. Her actions I'm sure will weed out those who are not as committed as they say they are, although her declaration was met with some immediate opposition, those who objected were dismissed and detained, we can't afford to let our secrets out. she had stated that those staff who are parents must "donate" to the cause, subjecting their own children to experimentation. The Chairman had seconded the declaration by "donating" his unborn son to the cause, not having any children of my own this doesn't affect me, merely whom I will be experimenting on. My special talents had alerted me though to the distress that The Chairman is under, secretly he doesn't want too, but I have no reason to alert anyone else to the situation. Mr. Batchelder, not having any children of his own has stated that he will do what he can for the cause. _

_The day has finally come where the conception of the avians has been achieved, now it is only a matter of time to see how they will develop or if they will even survive. I admit that I have high hopes for this group of experiments, decades upon decades of research have led up to this very day, and now that it has happened, I feel as though I am as close as ever to answering those questions whose answers I set out to find so long ago. As I continued to monitor the progress of the experiments, I was caught off guard by a Voice in my head, who's it was I do not know, possibly a side affect from my mental abilities. The progress of the aforementioned abilities has been quite remarkable, and I must dedicate more time in the future to studying their full potential. As of now I am able to not only read the minds of those around me, but I am able to penetrate their memory and see into their deepest darkest secrets, dreams, hopes, and fears. One day when I was making my rounds in the containment unit to check on the progress of other various experiments, my attention was drawn to an experiment that I'm sure would fail, as I became so focused on it that it heard my thoughts, I know this to be a fact because I could see it respond and I could hear the makings of confusion in its poor underdeveloped brain. This development has an incalculable amount of benefit, not only am I able to read minds, but my mind can communicate with others. Others cannot respond as I due, all they have to do is merely think it, but they cannot have the same feeling of omniscience as I. _

_The conscious of the mind never ceases, even the subconscious carries more then we realize, at night I am plagued with the thoughts and dreams of my colleagues, and those experiments that are able to form a what could be perceived as thought. The little insignificant things of life flood into me to no end, and yet I know how everyone thinks about everyone else, I've decided not to confront those who's opinions of me I disapprove of, I need all the help I can get these days. Mr. Batchelder has been observing how I act around the experiments, he's confused as to why I act the way I due. I've told him that there is a connection between me and my work that I cannot describe, there is a Voice that connects us. He said that he didn't understand, I counseled him by saying that one day he would. If he is to be my successor, then all of my secrets will one day be his. _

_The development of the avians is progressing just as I had hypothesized, alas my superiors grow impatient, they want to see results now. Time after time I've told them that the process cannot be rushed, if it is, dire consequences can happen. They threatened me, but I know that they were lying, they can't lie to me, no one can. Mr. Batchelder asked me what I meant by the Voice, I laughed and he didn't say anything else. How could any human understand what I have subjected myself too, all of their consciousness is part of mine, all of my work is mine. Everything that has come to pass in the research of recombinant DNA is because of me. No one else can understand or ever will. _

_It has come to my attention that one of the avians is actually an offspring of Mr. Batchelder, when I confronted him on this he was shocked to say the least. Mostly because he had never spoken of this to anyone, he asked my had I had come to this conclusion, I had read his mind but of course I wasn't going to tell him, yet. _

_My colleagues are growing suspicious of my behavior, they fear me because they know that I had at one point been an experiment, and they were curious as to how it has affected me all of these long years. I don't know why, but I showed them that part of me was lupine. When I transformed, I was overcome with an indescribable blood lust, I lost control of myself for only a few moments and I lashed out at a fellow scientist. I had my eyes closed as I returned to my normal form, but I didn't need to see the fear in their eyes, I could hear it in my head. They were terrified of me, and to be honest i was terrified as well, what had overcome me? It was like nothing that I had ever experienced next day, my fellow members of the Board arrived on reports that I was becoming unstable. I could tell that my long absence from headquarters had caused them to become distrustful, I overheard that they thought I was going far beyond what I was allowed to do, truth be told I was but they would never find out. Call me paranoid, and call me a hypocrite for saying I wasn't, but I suppose hind sight is twenty-twenty. I did everything I could to convince them that I was stable, but the others had video recordings of my little outburst the day before. _

_The Director was there, she was evidence that I was successful, she looked as young as the day I preformed surgery on her, I on the other hand had aged, and gray hairs were growing on my stubble. To everyone I was ancient, a fossil from when the project was young, and now that the avians were well on their way, they felt as if my services were no longer required. They said I was to turn in my coat and retire immediately. But then it occurred to them that I might not keep quite, I had no reason to, but nobody else should know what I do, so they decided that I should be held prisoner, like an experiment. Like my experiments. What would happen to my experiments? Would the torch be passed to some lesser individual, someone who didn't have the same connection with them that I did? I couldn't allow that. I protested, saying that my service was invaluable and that progress would never be the same. I lashed out at them saying that they had no right to, that I was the only one who should be able to have that kind of power, the power to create and destroy. The power to "erase". _

_I don't remember much of what happened over that, I lost control of my emotions, and that same blood lust from before came over me, I transformed and attacked the individual in front of me. I bolted for the door and made a mad dash to the holding unit, they would never get their hands on my experiments. One by one I opened up the cages and one by one I ended each of their lives. I'll never forget the looks on their faces, I'll never be able to silence the screams of pure agony and terror in my head. they're still echoing. They caught up to me and security subdued me, they dragged me to a holding unit designed for the most dangerous of experiments. They threw me in there like I was trash, I clawed away at the door, I had neglected to test how the lupine DNA would affect my strength. I was able to break down the door with relative ease, and I ran for the nearest emergency exit but I was cut off. There was the Director and Mr. Batchelder, he was confused and unsure of whom he should side with, and in his indecision he chose. After that they injected me with a sedative. _

_I awoke to find myself in the confines of the holding unit, the door had been replaced with one more suitable, I was chained to the floor by the ankles, and I was alone in that room, the thoughts of every living being flooding into my mind, it was as if my powers had been amplified by my rage. I was still in my lupine form, I was filled with anger and wisdom. Why would they do this to me? Me, of all people, I had done everything I could to advance the project and this was the thanks I got? They would be were they are today if it wasn't for me! Imbeciles all! In my rage I clawed away at the walls, I was overcome with the need to kill, the blood lust came over me and I welcomed it in with open arms. I let it consume me. It was like a power all on its own, the pure power, and it was all mine. I now have power and wisdom on my side, nothing can stop me. _

_In the confines of my cell I waited, they would feed me only as it was necessary to keep me alive. In my rage, my mind had been unable to read minds, but as time passed, I eventually could. One day Mr. Batchelder came to visit me, I don't know how much time had passed, but seemed changed. He told me that he was chosen as my replacement. I laughed, he truly was my successor. He asked me about everything he could think of, how procedures were to be preformed, how to properly calculate the ratios of the four bases that make up everything living, how to manipulate the recombination of chromosomes so that there would be no ill side affects. I talked and he listened for what seemed like hours on end, day after day until he knew almost everything that I knew about the project. Then he asked me about the Voice. I told him that the Voice was my gift to all experiments, that even he couldn't control it fully. He didn't respond, I told him that I knew more then he thought was possible. _

_To this day he doesn't know everything, over the course of the years I had perfected my ability to send thoughts into people's minds, I had even mastered this power to where I could control others, through this process I had a guard get me this book so that I might record what has happened. To keep people unsuspecting I made sure that they would never remember being control ed by me, unless I wanted them to remember. I had many interesting conversations with Jeb over the next few months, and I let him in on what I was capable of. He's scared, and he always will be. To him I was a monster, and I began to except that as fact._

_ I had learned the entire lay out of the School in my many years here, with my powers I could escape whenever I please, Jeb knew it, but as long as he needed answers he kept me alive, and I continued to talk, at the rate he was progressing I calculated that I would die of old age before he knew everything. I need to stay alive, but how? My mind is as strong as ever, the mind needs to be preserved, but not the body. Only time will provide me with the answers that I seek, those elusive answers that still escape my growing mental power. As far as I'm concerned, my time is limited, and until I come up with another plan, all I can do is wait. Wait and listen.

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_Wow... Well at least now you know why Locke is where he is_, _but I assure you that that is not all of the picture. There will be one last part to The Book of Locke, it will tie in everything. So I hope that you've been paying good attention. But I suppose you want to get back to Felix, after all, who knows what Jeb wanted to talk to him about. *laughs evilly* Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.

P.S. Forgive the lateness of my updating, but I've had so many tests and essays due this week that I've hardly had time to update. Hopefully thing will get better soon, for my mental health's sake.


	19. Chapter 19

Hooray another update! The last week (and regrettably weekend) have been really hard on me personally, but hopefully my unofficial hiatus is over, so please don't rip off my head, I think I lost it anyway. Anyway now we get to finally figure out what Jeb wanted to talk to Felix about, I smell a mission...

I own nothing!

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Chapter 19: The Umbra and The Silver Lining

"Neglected to tell me?" I echoed his words. As far as I was concerned there were many things that he had "neglected" to tell me.

"Yes, I understand that, in the light of recent events, things will take some time before they return to normal." He paused as if he was doing this reluctantly. "But progress cannot be halted, we must proceed as usual." Why did it have too, it seemed as though the whole company didn't even care that one of its most important covert operatives had just died.

"So a mission then?"

"Yes, I understand that Phoenix is still in no condition to participate in any missions, therefore, I have come up with an alternative. You know that it is the policy of the company to send at least two Erasers on a mission. Since the only other member of your pack is incapacitated at the moment, I have found a partner for you, for the time being of course."

"May I ask who?"

"Alex." Of course. Why would it be anyone else. I wanted to sigh, but I didn't want Jeb to know of my objection. Then again, everyone knew how much we despised each other, I'm sure Jeb had his reasons. He glanced at me letting me know that he wasn't finished. "As you know, any missions that fall under the jurisdiction of your pack are a high priority matter, none of your missions should be taken lightly, no matter what they entail. This mission requires you to escort Mr. Chu, one of our more generous benefactors, on his way to a business meeting in Seattle, you'll also be part of the security."

Mr. Chu, he was a man I had only seen a few times in my life, I never talked to him, but his mere presence was enough to let me know that something wasn't right about him. From what I had overheard about his line of work was that he was above the government, he kept his business under the table, although rumor had it that he had barrels of toxic and nuclear waste in the oceans near Hawaii. As for the detail of the mission, escorting wasn't as glamorous as I would have liked, but at least it would keep my mind busy, and it had been a while since I had been to Seattle. I cleared my throat and nodded, acknowledging what I was supposed to do. Jeb nodded back slightly, I could still see in his eyes the pain that he was feeling in his eyes, he was taking it as hard as me. We were all like children to him, he made us who we are, and he had known Odin on a personal level.

"You wont be leaving until eight, so take your time. I'll brief Alex so you wont have to." That was the first time in a long time where I didn't have just an hour to pack my bags, oddly enough I knew what to do with my extra time.

"Thanks." That's all I said as I got up and head for the door, frankly I felt as though that's all that needed to be said. I twisted the knob behind my when i closed the door so that it didn't make a clicking sound.

_When will it all just end?_

_Never, not as long as I have anything say about it..._

_Leave us alone._

_Why? When you have so much to learn, and so does the boy._

_Leave him alone, he's no threat._

_Never, not until I have what I need, just remember, I'll always be around, and there's nothing that you can do about it..._

I gripped my head as the foreign voices bounced off the insides of my mind. The pain was sharp, like a hot needle forcibly splitting my head in two. I dropped to my knees, my eyes shut as tightly as they could. I was all alone in the hallway, or at least I was until Phoenix came around the corner with a fresh stream of tears lingering on her face and a tissue clutched in her hand. She gasped and ran over to me, completely forgetting her own pain.

"Felix what's wrong?" There was no fibbing here, she had already seen me on my knees. The last thing I wanted to do was make her worry, I got to my knees despite the blinding pain in my head.

"I tripped on my way to your room, I was going to see how you how you were doing." I wrapped an arm around her, trying to let her know that I was fine. "But it looks like you found me first." I grinned weakly, there was no emotion behind it, but she didn't notice, she just clutched the tissue tighter in her hand, and threw an arm around me. A tear rolled down one of her cheeks , and she buried her face in my chest, trying to hide her sobs. I couldn't help but feel bad, I had no family, no idea how to help her overcome this tragedy. All I had on my side was an overwhelming sense of empathy, unfortunately this was one of those times that made you regret it. I love her, and I couldn't do anything about it, and for some reason I'll never be able to forgive myself for that.

I walked her back to her room and sat her down on her bed. She reached for her pillow and clutched it in her arms. I glanced at the nightstand beside her bed, a picture frame was face down, I recognized it from a year ago on her birthday. Odin had given her a framed picture of the three of us, she couldn't bear the sight of his face. I let out a small sigh of regret and sat down next to her.

"You do know that it wasn't your fault?"

"Yes it was, I should have done something!" She buried her face in the pillow and began crying hysterically.

"If anything it should be mine, I should have gotten to him sooner, if I had distracted the experiment sooner he wouldn't have been hit." Naturally I had to blame myself, she wasn't even there but she still felt guilty. It's a fault that plagues us all, the price of being human. We're only ninety eight percent human, what about the other two percent of us? How does that affect how we feel? Or is it the blood lust, is that what separates us from the rest of the world? She threw the pillow at the wall and embraced me as though the world itself was ending, and for her it might as well have."It's going to be okay, don't worry, I'm not going to leave you." And then the bitter irony of my mission hit me. I was going to be gone when she needed me the most, and for that I still feel guilty.

We sat there for what I assumed was about an hour, in time she fell asleep, exhausted both physically and mentally. Reluctantly I got up from the bed, before I left I kissed her on the lips, the warm ghostly feeling of her skin haunted me, the taste lingering on my lips, sending me back into heaven for only a mere moment. It was worth it, any time with her was. I silently closed her door and headed for the break room, I had to talk to Hades about looking out for Phoenix when I was gone. The halls were as silent as ever, the black and white contrast of the walls seemed more stark as the mood of the School began to return to normal.

To get to the break room one would have to come to an intersection where one hall would lead off to the holding units. The lights leading down that particular hallway were off, and it seemed as though a faint draft was pulling me down the hall. I don't know quite why, but I went down that hall and went to Locke's cell. The door had an elaborate system of locks on it, retinal, and finger print as well as password. I put in my password and the door slid open giving me access to the dark poorly lit room.

Locke was sitting in a corner, scribbling in his book furiously as though he had finally lost it completely. I closed the door behind me and when he was done he closed the book and looked up at me. His face was covered in hairs, mostly black but lined in a silvery gray, and he was smiling showing his sickly yellow fangs. His left hand was somewhere between a hand and a paw, not quite either, but as if he hadn't finished transforming. His eyes were still as soulless as ever, no light reflected off of them, it was as if they absorbed what little light the light bulb above produced. He began chuckling, it grew into laughter, then mad laughter, and then a cackle that gave me goosebumps and made the skin on my back crawl.

"And to what do I own this pleasure of having you as my esteemed guest?" He raised an eyebrow, watching my every move, conscious and involuntary.

"You know why, don't bother me with introductions Locke." I let the detest for him come out in my voice, he didn't take it offensively, but rather he smiled as if he knew something that I didn't, as if some majestic eucatastrophe had just played out before his eyes.

"I'm just surprised that you came, after all I didn't tell you too." Again with the maleficent grin.

"Not directly, but I thought I heard you earlier. You and Jeb." The grin grew to my dismay. He flipped to the next blank page and jotted down something in a crude version of cursive.

"Truth be told I did talk to Jeb earlier, but I didn't let you in on the conversation, you did that all on your own my boy."

"You're lying to me." I didn't want to believe him.

"Oh am I? Need I remind you of all of the other times that you've heard voices in your head, whether they be mine own or someone else's." My mind was thrown back to the moment months ago when I thought I heard Phoenix say that she really loved me. I noticed both of Locke's eyebrows rise up. "You know that you can hear others Felix, so can I, a side affect of my own experimentation, but you, no, you can for another reason."

"Again with the idea that I was alive before I became an Eraser, why do you keep bringing that up?"

"Because you wont accept it as the truth, because you have yet to realize your full potential, and because you can't see the bigger picture yet. I intend to let you see the world for what it really is, but to do that you have to listen to me." He was cut short when the door opened up and Jeb rushed in, he was a little shocked to see me there and he ran his fingers through his hair, and then he noticed that Locke's book was open, the ink from his pen still drying on the page.

"Felix I need you to leave now, go to the break room." I nodded and paced out of the room, slightly taken back by the tone that Jeb had used with me. I was surprised that he showed up, secretly I was a little glad he did, it was a bad idea to go see Locke, every time I saw him he set me on edge. Why did Jeb show up so unexpectedly? It was as if he knew something, and frankly I was getting sick and tired of being out of the loop. Clearly I wasn't getting the whole picture.

Slightly frustrated I entered the break room, Alex had left most likely to get his briefing form Jeb, Hades was in there in his place. I made a remark to him that Alex had been sitting where he was now and jokingly he jumped out of his seat as though he would catch a lethal disease, earning a weak chuckle from me as I sat down in my chair.

"What's on your mind Felix?" He asked worried about how I was coping with recent events.

"I'll get over it eventually." Which really meant that I most likely never would.

"You're still worried about Phoenix aren't you?" It wasn't a question but a statement of the obvious.

"Of course, and I just got another mission, I don't want to leave her alone." My head fell, and Hades leaned forward in his seat.

"I know it goes without saying, but I'll look out for her." I looked up at him and smiled one of the few sincere smiles I had in a considerable amount of time. He was always there for me like an older brother, a pillar that I could lean on, and he knew that I appreciated it. The smile said everything.

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Well I have a few things to cover. I'll start with this chapter, lots of talking and it's all important, we get a little more insight into Locke's relationship with Jeb and Felix, and Felix gets a new mission so look forward to that. Aside from that, yes, eucatastrophe is a word. It means the exact opposite of catastrophe, so it's a sudden change from bad to good, and eucatastrophe is the word of the day, so try and use it.

Thank you everyone for being so patient with me, hopefully my life will smooth out enough for me to update more frequently. Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


	20. Chapter 20

I am the worst updater ever... Forgive my tardiness! But it appears as though that horrific time I had last week hasn't passed yet, just another nightmare that I need to wake up from. Well enough about my problems, you should be worrying about Felix and what's going to happen on his mission to Seattle. After all, he has to go with Alex, now that's just asking for trouble.

Oh and if you haven't yet, you should read **AmyQueen95**'s _The Cutoff Chronicles: An Icy Blaze_. It's well worth your time to read and review.

I own nothing!

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Chapter 20: Lingering Sentiments

It wasn't long after that, that I headed back to my room and started packing. Nothing special this time around, the exception being a black umbrella that I picked up the first time I ever when to Seattle, but that's a story for another time and place. I smiled at the memory, but was distracted by a tap on my door, it was Phoenix. She looked as if she just woke up and heard me packing. When she saw my suitcase resting on my bed she ran over and hugged me not letting go. She didn't want me to leave, she didn't want to risk losing the only person she had left in the world.

"Don't go." She pleaded, she couldn't take another blow. I didn't want to leave, and she knew it. I hugged her back.

"It's only for a little while, I promise, I'll be right back."

"You don't know that." She looked up at me, those warm inviting groves hidden in her eyes were overcast in a fog of tears. A perpetual storm that threatened her very well being. "You might not come back, what if I never see you again?" She gripped me harder at the mere thought of seeing me in a body bag.

"It's only an escort mission. You have nothing to worry about, I'll only be gone for a day or two and I promise, I'll be right back." Her grip tightened impossibly more, she looked up at me, close to tears all over again.

"But what if you don't? Your plane could crash or you could be assassinated or-" I put a finger to her lips. I could tell that she was genuinely concerned, but in the wake of Odin's untimely death she was borderline paranoia. She loved me, and the only other person she ever loved was Odin, she couldn't live with herself if something happened to me. She looked at me her eyes wide and afraid. I blinked slowly, and grinned ever so slightly.

"I told you, you have nothing to worry about." She couldn't respond, instead she practically melted in my arms while I kissed her. I don't know whether she pushed me back or if I fell back, but somehow we ended up on my bed, trapped in each others arms. My fingers ran through her long silky hair, and her fingers were twisting my hair into knots. Her other hand traced ghostly trails down my back, lighting me on fire. Between kisses we were able to catch glances of heaven in each others eyes. Reluctantly it ended when I caught sight of the clock hanging on my wall. It was already seven. She still kept her arms around me, clinging to me, trying to squeeze out every millisecond of my presence she could. "I promise."

"Don't make a promise that you can't keep."

"Hope is strong, but love is stronger. That's how I know I can keep it." I gave her the most reassuring smile I could muster up, although after having just kissed the girl of my dreams, that seemed easier then it sounded. She buried her face in my chest.

"I love you." It was muffled, but still it wasn't hard to tell how much she really did.

"I love you too." I really meant it, how else was I supposed to describe how I felt for the beauty pressed up against me? We stayed like that for a minute or two, I caught a passing glance at the painting above my head, and then out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw move. A passing shadow, nothing more. I heard a faint chuckle echo down the hall, and so did Phoenix, her arms dropped to her side and she poked her head out of my room. Nothing, well almost nothing because Alex came around the corner. Phoenix took a step behind me when he came in, the temperature seemed to drop a few degrees just because of his presence, as if Siberia itself still clung to his very being. "What?" I asked coldly. He propped himself up against my door frame, his arms were crossed over his chest and he was looking at us out of the corner of his eye.

"I'm done, and if you two are done having your moment, I'd like to get this stupid mission over with if you don't mind." I glared at his insensitivity, that, and he invaded a private moment. I looked at Phoenix, she didn't know what to do. In my head I sighed, against my wishes I picked up my suitcase and motioned for Alex to leave. He rolled his eyes and left, when I was sure he was gone I gave Phoenix one last hug and then headed for the door. I looked back and wanted to say something, but the plethora of words needed to describe how I felt at that very moment escaped me when I looked her in the eyes one last time. The storm of tears was gone for only an instant but that was all I needed to lose myself one last time. That summer grove that was warm and inviting beckoned, no, pleaded for me to stay. I'll never forgive myself for leaving.

I heard Alex call my name from somewhere down the hall and I was forcibly dragged away from her by his words. I mouthed 'goodbye' to her and she did the same with the first smile on her face I had seen on her face in a long time. Somewhere deep down she knew I was coming back, she was just worried, and I had to keep telling myself that. It helped, somehow.

As I walked down the hall I caught up to Alex, he had a suitcase in his left hand, and he was running his right hand along the wall. I gripped the handle on my suit case as I approached him. Was I bitter at him for pulling me away from Phoenix? Yes, and I'm sure he knew it.

"Took you long enough, if you keep coddling her like that, she'll never get over it." The comment was loaded with spite and was abrasive enough to smooth sandpaper. I flashed him a fiery glare in a futile attempt to anger him.

"You have no say in the matter, you don't even care."

"True, but no one wants to see you two making out, but I suppose now that big brother's out of the way you have no reason to hide it anymore." He flashed me back an icy stare, trying to silence me. Unfortunately, it worked, I clenched my jaw, and he saw it. He grinned slyly as if he had won some great victory.

"Bite me." He almost stumbled at my remark, not expecting me to jump to the end so fast. The two of us stopped in the hallway, the only sound was our breathing. We just stood there staring each other down, judging to see if this was it, who was going to act first. I could see the blizzards of Siberia behind his eyes, if he had a heart or even the slightest sense of humanity, I could not tell. He blinked slowly, and I swallowed, a fair trade. I saw the shadow of his fingers wave on the wall, and I raised an eyebrow. It was as if he wasn't even looking at me, he was looking through me, as if I didn't exist. I on the other hand was repelled by his eyes, an impenetrable glacier of ice that I couldn't brake through. He sighed and glanced down the hall, Jeb was coming out of the briefing room. I turned away to look at him, grateful that he had postponed the inevitable.

He had a hand on his face, exhausted from having to deal with the lose of Odin and having Locke on his hands, it was almost too much for him to handle. He walked past the two of us as if we weren't there, distracted by the enigma of a situation he had on his hands. How Jeb had been able to make it this far was beyond me. Alex cleared his throat and proceeded down the hall, not looking back to see if I was going to follow. He wasn't going to confront me now, not here of all places.

The limo was waiting for us in the garage, as Alex callously threw his case into the trunk I caught a glimmer of chrome from underneath a sheet. Odin's motorcycle had been moved towards the back and draped with a sheet to keep the dust off. I wondered as I put my suit case into the limo what would ever become of it. I hoped that it would be around when I came back, that way I could give Phoenix a ride on it. Alex sat in the back of the limo, and so I sat up front in the cabin. I never sat shotgun before, the driver raised an eyebrow as I got in, my black umbrella in hand, and buckled up. He looked as though he had been doing this his whole life. He never said a word, as if he was sworn to a literal oath of secrecy and silence.

It didn't take long to get to the airport, and from there it was business as usual. Our suitcases were taken and we were processed relatively quickly. As Alex passed through the metal detector I prayed in my head that the alarm would flare and he would be dragged off by security. I wanted to chuckle, but that was a opening that he would undoubtedly take a shot at. To my dismay, nothing happened, and I passed through security with no problems either, although as I passed through the detector I thought I heard Alex chuckle, I couldn't tell because he wasn't facing me. As I passed him I thought I saw the remains of a grin on his face, and when I was in front if him I rolled my eyes.

Out of a stroke of luck we weren't seated next to each other. Thank you Jeb. I had a window seat and Alex sat on the other side of the aisle a few rows up. An elderly lady came by and took her seat next to me, moments later a man who was in serious need of going to a gym sat next to Alex, blocking off all chances of escape. I snickered as quietly as I could, but then again, I didn't care if he heard me.

As the plane took off I looked out the window as the world around me began to flash by in a blur as the landscapes dissolved into a stream of color. The world shrank before my eyes as the plane rose into the sky, and for some reason my thoughts were drawn to the memory of a certain experiment that I hadn't seen in quite some time. That little blond avian, it could fly. I wondered what it was like to fly, to have no borders around you,to not be earthbound, to be able to free fall with no risk, to even have wings. What was it like?

_I'm sure you know, you just might not remember..._

_But that is a memory, one that shouldn't be remembered._

_Why not?_

_Because, he has to figure it out for himself._

_See, I was right, he does have to figure it out for himself, I just intend to give him a push is all._

_Leave him alone._

_Never._

Just like before, my head felt as though it was going to split in two. One of the voices was Locke's but I couldn't identify the other. It seemed so familiar and yet so distant at the same time. I clutched my head with my hands, and that alerted the elderly woman next to me. She asked me what was wrong, but I assured her that I would be fine. A lie, I didn't know what was going to happen_._ The woman asked me for the time, I pulled out my pocket watch and opened it. It was about half past eight, I let out a sigh and closed my eyes, trying to block out as much as I could. My head was pounding from being invaded, and being on a mission with Alex of all people wasn't helping either.

I wanted to drift off to sleep, but the throbbing pain that was lingering in my head prevented me from doing so. Instead I kept thinking about the avians, what they were, what they were created for. I remembered that night in Paris, when Isaac had sworn me to secrecy about the avians. Clearly there was a part of the picture that I wasn't seeing, and as far as I was concerned it was only a matter of time before I could see the rest. Why hadn't Jeb told me any of this, about the avians, about the Erasers, about Ari? Nothing. Only a blank, no solace, no answers. I had to find out the truth.

_One step at a time, for the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.__

* * *

_Oh the anticipation is killing me because I know what's going to happen, and you have to wait, please don't kill me.

The whole point of this chapter was to show you how different Alex and Felix are, aside from character development and advancing the plot, and I hope that I delivered on it. On a side note, while I was typing this chapter up, I was listening to some music, and along came a little song call _My Immortal_ by Evanescence. I implore of you to listen to it, because I swear it's the theme song for this story! As a matter of fact, a lot of Evanescence songs work really well.

Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.

P.S. Don't forget about **AmyQueen95**'s story!


	21. Chapter 21

I'm back! My family went on vacation all weekend, and I was stranded in the middle of a hotel with no computer access. :( The food was over priced, the room was small, my bed was uncomfortable, and to top it off, I couldn't update. Hopefully this chapter will ebb that sense of suspense that i have been working so hard to create. That is if it's still around after last weekend...

I own nothing!

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Chapter 21: Under the Table

The sky around the plane went from a peaceful blue to a foreboding gray. I forgot how dark the sky could be in this part of the world, almost as if a sunny day was out of the ordinary. The color below would shift from a dry brown, to a rocky gray, and then finally to a mixture of a deep lush green and the tell tale gray of industrialized civilization. Before to long I was enveloped by a world of gray, it was almost as lifeless as the interior of the School.

The plane came to a halt on the runway, and after we has made our way through the mass of arriving people we were able to find our bags with relative ease. I hoped that his would be sacrificed to the airport gods, never to be seen again. I'm sure the feeling was mutual. Waiting for us at the entrance of the airport was a Chinese man in a suit, he had a look on his face that was screaming suspicious, but he radiated an aura of intimidation that seemed to deter all security. He recognized us and made the first move.

"You two must be from the School, Mr. Chu has been expecting your arrival. Follow me please." He did nothing short of an about face and walked out of the terminal, not looking back to see if we were following. The limo out front had tinted windows, and looked as though it was brand new. The man took our suit cases and opened one of the door for us. The interior was spacious enough for each of us to claim our own bubble, Alex and I couldn't help but exchange nasty glances at each other, the Chinese man took notice most likely, but didn't say anything. The limo wound it's way through the bustling streets of downtown Seattle, the Space Needle towered over us like a monolithic artifact from another time. The air smelt of coffee, and occasionally fish as we got closer to the docks.

But luckily we weren't headed for the waterfront, instead we were somewhere between towering skyscrapers. The massive amount of concrete and steel that surrounded us caused Alex to lose service on his cell phone. The Chinese man stepped out of the limo as immediately as it came to a stop. He briskly opened our doors and retrieved our bags, and then retreated into the confines of the building on my right. The large glass windows were either tinted or they were so clean that they reflected everything, aside from that, there was no indication as to what the use of this building was. Alex walked in after a few moments, leaving me out front. The limo left me and made a turn into a hidden garage, not wanting to stand out like a sore thumb, I entered the building after the door closed from when Alex entered.

The lobby looked like that of a hotel, potted plants in the corners, overstuffed benches, and a lone receptionist sitting behind a counter. She was busy typing something and paid no attention to us. The Chinese man led us down a hall and then stopped in front of a door. He opened it for us and waited until we were both inside. It was a typical business room with a large wooden table in the center surrounded by one too many chairs, and a monitor at the end of the room that was used to communicate with other rooms and buildings. The chair at the opposite end of the table spun around and another man was sitting in it. He looked at us for a second with piercing eyes, and then his gaze relaxed somewhat. He waved his hand, and the man who escorted us left the room. The man in the chair stood up, and put his hands behind his back.

"You two must be my Erasers, I was beginning to wonder when you were going to show up." He sounded almost as if he was displeased, as if he was expecting more. He kept shifting his gaze between the two of us, and after a few moments he frown. "Well, aren't you going to say something?"

"Yeah, when can we leave?" Alex said nonchalantly. Because of his diction he received a double dose of visual venom from myself and our host, then I received my dose because of my unfortunate association with him. Our guest cleared his throat and walked over to us.

"You forget who you speak to, I am Mr. Chu, and last I check, you are in my service." He stared at Alex for a moment or two, I enjoyed watching Alex getting stared down, but he wouldn't flinch, and Mr. Chu reached that conclusion quickly. "You two are here to be my bodyguards while I'm at a very important meeting with Dr. Roland ter Borcht, I'm not the most popular man with the government, and my line of work has led to me having a considerable amount of enemies." The way he said enemies not only sounded ominous, but it also left the door wide open to the possibilities. "The meeting is tonight at eight." He paused and looked at his watch. "Which is in roughly half an hour." He snapped his fingers and the man who escorted us from the airport came through the door as if he had had his ear pressed to it the whole time, listening to our every word and action. Mr. Chu gave us a stern look, and then glanced at this henchman. "Ready the car, I'll be there shortly." He paced out of the room followed by the Chinese man leaving me and Alex in the meeting room.

"Wonderful choice of words. What are you trying to do, have us sent back?" I said facing the door, not wanting to even look at him.

"No, I'm trying to have you shanghaied. But being sent back doesn't sound so bad compared to being stuck here with you." He spat back at me. He sat down in one of the chairs, propped one leg on the other and spun around in the chair so he was facing my back. I turned around, not trusting him behind my back. He crossed his arms and swiveled back and forth, knowing full well why I had turned around. he looked at me as though he expected me to retort with something witty and bitterly sarcastic, truth be told I couldn't think of anything at the moment besides him spontaneously bursting into flames.

A few minutes later Mr. Chu reappeared, the same disapproving look plastered on his face, it seemed to darken every time he looked at Alex. He didn't say a word as he left the room and headed out front to the new waiting limo. Every minor detail about it was different, no expense was paid in trying to throw off whoever would be hunting down Mr. Chu. even with us as security detail he seemed on edge the whole time, as if he expected a sniper to start shooting at him.

The car wormed its way through the bustling metropolis that is downtown Seattle, people walking around like a colony of ants, brainwashed into completing their daily rituals as if there was no other purpose in their existence. The fuel by which this society lived off of wasn't gasoline, but coffee, Starbucks and Seattle's Best were littered everywhere, as if without them the city itself would become a ghost town. The car came to a halt in front of a Starbucks, and to my surprise Mr. Chu got out and waited for us.

"You're joking right?" Alex sputtered in utter incredulity. He looked at me as if he was in a bad dream. "Please tell me he's joking." Mr. Chu paid no heed to Alex's callous remarks and went inside. I passed by him as well, not bothering to dignify his outcry with a response. The interior was poorly lit, the air was a thick stew of various coffee's people were either reading the newspaper of were on a laptop checking their e-mail. One girl was furiously typing away at something as if she had an epiphany and it was slipping through her grasp. Mr. Chu sat at a table in the far back corner, and pulled up a newspaper attempting to be as inconspicuous as possible. Alex went over to the counter and bought something and I sat at one of the tables near the window and stared out at the sky. It was still the same shade of ominous gray. I could here each second tick away because of my pocket watch, and it seemed as though every succeeding second was minutely slower then its predecessor.

I blinked finally when a car pulled into view, and out stepped a short round man. He was followed by the twins Quetzal and Coatl, I still couldn't tell the difference between them. Mr. Chu caught wind of the man's arrival and folded up his paper, the round man and the twins came in and began scanning the place for anything off kilter, but once the twins saw me they tapped the man on the shoulder and they seemed to relax a little. Alex had situated himself in a chair as he mindlessly watched the traffic outside, or at least that's what he wanted it to look like. One of the twins came up to me and grinned mischievously.

"Ter Borcht isn't to happy about this, he thinks it's unbecoming of men of his caliber." His brother stood beside him. "We didn't expect to see you here, especially with Alex." It was as though they shared a brain, each one glancing at different things, making sure that collectively everything was accounted for.

"Well trust me when I say that neither of us are to thrilled about it either. You said that the man you're guarding is ter Borcht? What business does he have with Chu?"

"We don't know, although we do know that it has something to do with Chu's choice of disposing with his nuclear waste." Of course, I remember hearing that Chu's company would dump its waste in the oceans around Hawaii. I'm sure the radiation was having ill effects on whatever came in contact with it. I shot a glance over at Mr. Chu who looked as if the truth was poison honey, and the more ter Borcht talked the more upset Chu became.

"What do you mean mutants!" Chu final exclaimed earning a few odd glances from people in the shop. He recomposed himself as best he could and ter Borcht attempted to explain himself.

"I'm saying that the radiation fallout has had very interesting effects on the natural wildlife. What I suggest is that you find a more suitable location for your nuclear waste. Perhaps Siberia, or the Himalayas?" Ter Borcht asked as he laced is fingers and put his hands on the table. Needles to say, Chu had already contemplated a plethora of ideas, and was less then thrilled at ter Borcht's analysis of the situation at hand. The twins rolled their eyes, and let out simultaneous sighs. One of them glanced at Alex who was still fixated on something outside the shop that escaped me, he was staring intently as if he was judging what was going to happen. Suddenly he got up, walked over to us and stopped, as if he was looking at the menu above the counter.

"We need to leave, now." I had never heard him that serious before, it was as if he had completely put aside our differences and was blind to anything else. But then again, why would he be acting this way? He'd only do this if there was a threat to Mr. Chu and ter Borcht that was serious. My eyes began darting at random objects outside the store, the twins calmly walked over to Chu and ter Borcht and whispered the news into their ears. They got up from their chairs and the twins left the store looking in opposite directions. One of them snapped their fingers signaling that me and Alex should come out.

Needless to say four men wearing the same suit standing outside a Starbucks warranted a few odd looks. Alex stared off any pedestrians that were slowing down as they passed by, and the twins were plotting a course through the mob of people.

"Where?" I said while scanning at seemingly arbitrary objects.

"In the building across the street, fourth floor." Alex said before he turned back into the store. My eyes shot up and there it was staring me in the face. A sniper, he was putting his rifle together and had failed to notice that we had caught on. As if he had become aware that I was looking at him, he looked up and frantically began disassembling his rifle. I shot a quick look at one of the twins and he bolted across the street and began weaving through traffic with complete disregard for the law.

If there was one sniper, odds are that there was at least another or a mob of hired hands. As for who wanted Mr. Chu or ter Borcht dead was beyond me at the moment. Alex reemerged from the shop with Chu and ter Borcht behind him, he shot a glance at where the sniper had been.

"Help your brother, we'll get them out of here." Alex said to the twin as he practically pushed him into traffic. He darted between cars, dodging them with ease. We had been seen to much, headquarters wasn't going to be happy about this. I opened the door to the car we came in, ter Borcht and Chu made a mad dash to the mobile sanctuary, and Alex went in after them. I got in shotgun, and the car swerved into traffic and hastily made its way back to Chu's hideout. Only a few blocks away from the hide out a black van came out from an alley and stopped in front of the car. I glanced in the rear view mirror and Alex gave me a quick nod and a sinister smile.

"Show time."

* * *

Well, well, well. Things are going to get very interesting, I wonder if Felix is only going to be gone a day or two like he said he would. Again I apologize for my updating. But hey, at least I'm still here, I'm not about to leave all of you hanging. No, because some stories are so good, they have to be told. Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


	22. Chapter 22

I own nothing!

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Chapter 22: Another Player

Alex opened the door and slithered out, slamming it behind him, and I did the same, only I closed the door. The car tires spun in reverse, trying to get out of the alley as quickly as it could. That left me and Alex in the alley with the black van. The door slid open and out came four men in trench coats. They each had on the same set of shades and black gloves. One of them stopped and scanned me up and down through his shades. He motioned forward with his right hand and the rest of the men started following him. Alex went off to the left, and I went off to the right in an attempt to circle them. The man who had stopped earlier stopped once again, only this time he lifted up his shades so I could see his eyes. His eyes were a deep shade of blue, like the deepest part of the ocean.

"Looks like you're Chu's new bodyguards. Did he tell you what we did to the last ones?" I didn't respond. "Guess not." He started to snicker but stopped when he heard Alex make a slight approach from behind. He turned around and whipped out a metal rod that had two tips on it, blue electricity arced between the two prongs in a lethal crackle. "Think twice before you make a move boy. This thing is the equivalent of touching the third rail, and I doubt you want to experience that." His eyes went back to me, and the corners of his mouth rose into a confidant grin. "All we want is for you get out of our way so that we can take care of Chu."

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." I said as I hooked my thumbs in my pockets. "And for your safety, I suggest that you turn around and forget everything that you were goin to do."

"Why should I?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. The other men began to grin as well, assuming that because they had the superiority in numbers that they had the advantage. I heard Alex growl almost inaudibly, he was hardly containing himself. He was waiting for the drop of a hat so that he could rip these assassins to shreds like they were paper. I rose a lone hand signaling him not to make a move until I said so. My fingers grew into claws, my face elongated into a snout, and my teeth became fangs. To my surprise, the men didn't seem so surprised. "Well, look here boys. Chu's rented himself some Erasers." He sounded amused if anything. My surprise manifested itself when my eyebrow rose.

"Care to tell me why and how you know about us?" I shot a quick glance at Alex who had preoccupied himself with growling like a rabid beast at the other men. I silently prayed that he wouldn't snap, not yet.

"Oh, trust me, we know all about Chu and his connection with Itex and their workings. All you need to know is that our employer has kept us well informed on what we'd be up against, the thing is, I didn't believe him at first." Alex wanted to bark, I could see it in his eyes, his teeth began to turn into fangs and I thought his fingers began to grow into claws. "But I guess he was right, you really are freaks in every sense of the word." Those were probably going to be the last words that he ever regretted, because that to Alex was the drop of a hat. The Eraser in him erupted out, like it was a whole new animal bursting out of a shell. If they weren't scared of me, then they were scared of Alex in all of his terrifying majesty, or monstrosity.

Alex lunged himself at one of the three other men, tackling him to the ground, he began ripping away at him until all that was left was a bloody pulp. Naturally the resulting scream had everyone fleeing away and they were chased by Alex, leaving me and the lone man with the prod in his hand. He seemed unaffected by what had just occurred, as if he almost expected it to happen.

"I don't suppose that you're as rabid as your friend?" He started to walk towards me, and I continued circling to the right. My lack of a response forced his grin to retreat into his head. "Guess not." He thrust forward and I jumped to the left, sliding a little on the wet pavement. I bore my claws, trying to deter him, but to no avail. He ran at me and swung, I dodged at the last possibly second, he missed me by half an inch. I took advantage of the small opening and landed a blow to his ribs, breaking a few in the process. He jumped back, clutching his right side with his left and and the prod in his right. "Well, this is going to be more interesting then I thought." He said, that same grin reappearing on his face. He pressed a button on the handle and the prod and it extended at least a foot. Blue electricity danced between the two tips and sparks flew of in erratic patterns.

He ran at me again, this time, trying to stab me with the prod. Before I could grab a hold of it to disarm him, he retracted it. My turn for the offensive. As he pulled it back and steadied himself I charged at him, planted my left foot in the ground, and roundhouse kicked him in his left humerus. I hit the nerve, and his arm fell limp, exposing his right side. he shot a hasty glance at his left arm, and then his gaze became fixated on me. He took a few steps toward me and then stopped, I was just out of the reach of the prod. He stuck it out in front of me, his thumb hovered over the button. I jumped back as he pressed it again, and it hit me. Luckily it hit me when both of my feet were off the ground, and all I got was a tingling in the tips of my fingers. I landed on both of my feet, and looked him in the eyes. His face was like stone, and my gaze bounced off his shades. I rose an eyebrow, taunting him.

"You're move." I said as I hooked my thumbs in my pockets and returned to my normal form. He stared at me for a few moments and pressed the button on the prod's handle again, retracting it to its normal length. The fingers on his left hand began to twitch as he regained control of his numb arm again. Once he had full control of it he took off his shades and set them in the trench coat's pocket. He sighed slightly.

"It's been a long time since anyone stood a chance against me."

"I'm sorry to rain on your parade, but I was going easy on you." I was right, I hadn't used my claws to rip him into confetti, the question was if he knew it. He smirked and ran at me, throwing a punch at my right side, and swinging the prod with his right arm. I dropped to the ground, and kicked him in the side of the knees, dropping him to his. My left hand grew into a paw and my fingers into claws, and I slashed three bloody trails in his right arm. He dropped the prod and winced in pain. But then he punched my right knee with his left arm. There was a considerable amount of force behind it even after I made it go numb. I stepped back and he got to his feet, drops of dark red blood dripped onto the pavement and mixed with the residual rain.

"I guess you were." He said submissively. Once he got a good look at his arm, and what a simple swipe could do, he threw in the towel.

"Care to tell me who hired you for this little venture? Or why they want Chu out of the picture?"

"He didn't say why, but I gotta tell you, I wouldn't expect someone that young to have ambitions that big. But I guess when you get down to it, money talks." The love of which is the root of all evil. "What's it to you anyway?"

"It's a matter of security, and you're a threat."

"My sincerest apologies, it's just a job." He looked at the ground.

"Worth getting killed over?" His eyes locked on mine, he was judging me to see if I was the kind to kill, if I really would take his life if necessary. His grip on his bleeding arm tensed, the memory of his wound ever fresh. He closed his eyes and began to chuckle.

"You're right." He picked up the prod, pressed the button on the handle to retract it, and he placed it in his coat pocket. "It's not, not this." He sighed and pulled out a cell phone. He dialed a number, I could here the ring, no one was picking up. I doubted anyone ever would. Alex was ruthless, I sincerely doubted that those men were in one piece, or alive for that matter. He looked confused at the lack of an answer and after a few more seconds he put the phone away. "Well we better go find your your friend, see what's going on." He started walking down the alleyway that his men and Alex had run off in. I followed with about ten feet of space between us, it wasn't long before we came across a trail of blood that was easy for us to follow, and when the trail would disappear I would follow the scent and point out the direction.

After a few twists and turns we ran into Alex who was walking back towards us with a satisfied look on his face, his hands were in his pockets, and I could see the faint hint of red around his mouth. The beast. He didn't say anything to us, he just walked by and smiled wickedly, his sick pleasure satiated. the man in the coat shot me a look as he began to put the pieces together, I simply closed my eyes and shook my head slightly, not wanting to know what had become of the missing men.

When we arrived at the van, Alex propped himself up against it as if he thought he was worthy of some glorious recognition, the man got in the drivers seat and pulled out his cell phone. I shot Alex a look of disgust, but my visual arrows bounced off him completely, he openly licked his lips, relishing the lingering salty taste of his obscene triumph.

"Yeah, he got away. No... I'm the only one left. He had Erasers, just like you said... Yes they spotted my sniper... Understood." He closed the phone and got out of the van, clutching his wounded arm. His head was hung low in shame, his pride shattered by what I'm sure he perceived as two freaks of nature, I could see it in his eyes. There was no hiding what he was feeling. He sighed and looked up. "Well, this is about as bad as it could get."

"Oh I wouldn't say that." Alex said, his eyes were closed and his head was tilted back against the van. I shot him a glare, knowing full well he couldn't see it.

"I'm sorry it had to come to that." I said trying to repair what Alex had utterly obliterated.

"Don't be, it's my fault for taking on the job anyway. My men kept saying that this was a bad idea, I just thought he was joking when he said that you could really turn into monsters." He was avoiding making eye contact. "If it wasn't for my poor judgment, this whole thing could have been avoided."

"I'll ask you again, who employed you?"

"To be honest I don't know, he was just a boy, a boy that had quite a big pocket book." He looked just as puzzled as I was about his employer. Who would want Chu out of the picture? Truth be told quite a few. But who would go to these lengths, knowing full well that he might have employed Erasers? The man shot a glance at Alex who was still propped up against the van. "He doesn't care does he?" I grinned, yet another person who dislikes Alex.

"He never did." I said knowing that Alex could here every word that was being said. the cell phone in my pocket began vibrating. "A moment.' I said as I pulled it out.

"Where are you?" Chu shouted over the other end of the line, Alex started chuckling. "You two better be here any minute or I'll notify Batchelder!" Threats, that's just what the situation called for. I hung up, not caring what would be awaiting me and Alex back at Chu's hideout.

"Duty calls." I said as I put the phone back in my pocket. Alex already inferred what was happening and stopped leaning on the van, he stretched unnecessarily. I looked back at the man. "You should probably leave." It was more of a demand even though I didn't mean it to be. He smirked.

"You can drive the van, just drop me off at that Starbucks that you were in, trust me, I'll be fine." He motioned at his wounded arm. Naturally I wasn't about to completely trust a person that had tried to kill me only a few minutes ago, so I looked at him weird. It didn't take him long to figure out why. "Nothing's going to blow up on you, and you can dispose of it when you arrive. Still I wasn't sure if I would.

"Oh for the love of-" Alex never finished that sentence. He ran around to the driver's side of the van, and started it up. "Coming or what?"

Naturally if one was riding in a car with Alex behind the wheel they would feel uneasy. Frankly I'm amazed that he didn't run down any pedestrians. The man shoot me a concerned look and jokingly frowned at me, he wasn't to thrilled about the situation either. It began to rain as the van weaved its way through downtown Seattle and after a few wrong turns and directions we found ourselves outside of Starbucks. As the man unbuckled himself Alex shot me a look of impatience through the rear view mirror.

"Well I guess this is where our little venture ends. Who knows maybe this isn't the last time we'll run into each other?" He grinned slightly.

"Maybe." I said echoing him but as a response. He closed the door and took a step back and waved with one hand hand sending us on our way. Just as Alex pulled away from the the curb it occurred to me that I never caught the man's name. Then I noticed the card face down in his seat. It was a business card advertising a mercenary group headed by a man by named Alister Lynch. I almost chuckled, advertisement for a group that was funded by illegal activities. But my mind didn't linger on that subject much longer as we approached Chu's hideout.

Waiting for us outside was the man who escorted us from the airport and another man. Before we even pulled up I could see the look of dissatisfaction on their faces. We got out of the van and stopped in front of the two men. The man I didn't recognize got in the van and drove it off into the secret garage, Chu's right hand man simply stared at us stone faced until the van was out of sight.

"He's waiting inside. Come." He did an about face and walked inside. We found Chu sitting a a chair in the conference room, his fingers were laced together and his elbows were on the table. The man left leaving me and Alex at the mercy of Chu's judgment.

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I'm so happy, it's finally snowing! Now for those of you who don't know, it's a big deal if it snows when you live at thirty seven feet above sea level. So I'm praying for a snow day so I can finally spend some well earned time on the computer. But anyway, it seems as though things aren't always as they appear, and how will this mysterious player act in the the future? And what will happen to Felix and Alex? Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


	23. Chapter 23

I know I'm a day late, but still. Happy Thanksgiving! Oh, and I'm sad, all the snow melted. Oh well, six day weekend baby!

I own nothing!

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Chapter 23: There is No End to The Tunnel

Not a word was said among the three of us for an awkward span of time. Chu just stared at us, a raging fire hidden just behind his eyes. Alex and I stared back waiting for him to make his long anticipated move. He blinked once, twice, and then he sighed.

"What happened?" Was all he said. A precursor for something much worse I'm sure. Alex didn't respond, passing the buck to me. "I'll ask you again. What happened?" Chu was already impatient, he was simply choosing not to show it as best he could.

"We fought off the assassins and commandeered their van."

"That's not the whole picture! Don't lie to me!" He slammed his fists into the table. It was a stand off of resolves, Chu's will as the one that brought us here, or mine and Alex's will to remain steadfast and immovable. "Tell me what happened!" He was losing control.

"Everything that needed to be said was said." Somethings are just better left unsaid.

"So there is more, tell me everything or else!"

"Or else what?" Alex chimed in, internally I smiled, it was time for Alex to use his venomous tongue so I gracefully stepped down. "You'll notify Jeb? Think for once Chu, do you honestly think that Jeb will penalize us over a subject of unclear matters?" Chu went dead silent, his argument invalid. His eyes darted back and for, as if he was visually searching for a point to strike.

"You disobeyed my orders-" He was cut off.

"You're still not thinking." Alex said, the makings of a cynical smile forming on his face. Chu didn't respond at first, the raging fire inside him doused by Alex's cold personality and viper tongue. Finally Chu moved, shifting positions in his chair, he spun around so he was facing the video chat sighed barely audible.

"Get out of my sight, you're dismissed." He said it as confidently as he could, knowing that he was beaten by us. Alex walked out of the room holding in a chuckle, I simply followed, leaving the door open behind me. Our suitcases were waiting for us outside by a limo driven by the same man that brought us here just earlier that day. By now the sky had gone dark, but the shadows of gray were still visible underneath the luminous glow of the city. Needless to say the ride to the airport was as silent as a graveyard.

The clutter and clatter of the airport shattered that silence as we got on the our plane. A crying child, a bickering couple, and a man arguing with one of the stewardess about what the proper code of conduct was in the event of an emergency landing. Alex didn't say anything to me, and I didn't want to make the first move so we moved silently through the terminal like a malevolent force, silencing all that we came in contact with. Whether out of intimidation of example as we passed by anyone all conversation seemed to stop, the child stopped crying, the couple, man and stewardess ended their argument as we walked through the gate to the plane.

The plane wasn't completely full, a few empty seat were scattered evenly here and there. Alex sat towards the front, and I more towards the back. as more and more people got on sound came back into the world, but all I seemed to be able to focus on was the soft ticking of my pocket watch. every second seemed to tick by impossibly slower. I looked out the window to see a black starless sky and a mirage of golden lights. Taking off made the illusion end and I was surrounded by darkness as tangible as a nightmare.

The events of the past twenty four hours flashed in mind, a muddle of decisions and conflict. Chu, Alister, Alex, Jeb, Phoenix... The stability of the absolute seemed to fade the longer I lingered in confusion. I simply couldn't seem to figure out why they would act the way they would, the pure exception being Phoenix, the one person I really knew, the only one I could connect with, the one who needed me the most. I sighed out of mental exhaustion and let my head fall on the head rest. I closed my eyes, trying to shut out any further chaos. Slowly everything stopped and I slipped into sleep.

_I was in the alleyway from earlier today. The air was as still as a graveyard, the only sound being my footsteps. It wasn't long before I came across a trail of blood, innate curiosity drove me to follow it. Claw marks lined the wall of the building on my left. Alex, subtlety wasn't his strong point, if anything he had no restraint when he was an Eraser. All raw power, unchanneled it could destroy anything and everything it touched. The blood lust could and would corrupt whatever it could, another soul and sanity lost in madness._

_As I walked along the trail of blood became fresher and as I rounded the corner my eyes snapped opened. It was all of the men that Alex had run after. They were scattered everywhere, their limbs broken and lying in unnatural positions. Mouths opened in silent screams, and eyes blank but full with fear and terror. I had seen Alex's work before, but this was brutality that was simply unwarranted. Tattered bits of clothes were everywhere and each of them lay in a pool of blood. A growl from behind me sent a shiver up my spine. Cautiously I turned around. I came to face to face with myself only it wasn't me, it was my Eraser form. I had never really seen my reflection when I was an Eraser, I had never seen how monstrous I could become. The Eraser me smiled devilishly and seemed to enjoy the look on my face._

_"What's the matter? You should be satisfied." He said still smiling as he took a few steps towards the corpses. He licked his chops, flecks of blood stained his mouth. My face reflected my disgust and the wicked smile vanished. "Oh come now, surely you must have enjoyed this, I know I did."_

_"What do you mean?" One of my eyebrows rose slightly. _

_"I'm asking you why you aren't happy with what we did?" The Eraser looked at me rather puzzled.  
_

_"You're not me." I said in defiance. The smile came back like a haunting ghost. _

_"Oh but I am. I'm you after all, you're just that part of us that hasn't embraced the blood lust yet."_

_"No you're not." I refused to believe it. _

_"You're as much a part of me as I'm a part of you. Of us." I wouldn't look it in the eye, I looked beyond it, at the corpses._

_"You did this?" _

_"No, we did." It said in a tone that made my blood run cold. I spun around and looked at the Eraser puzzled, it was me, only it wasn't. It was me, only if I had given into the blood lust. I would have become as deranged and demented as Alex. But I was above that, I was above him, I was above that madness. "You should have seen us, we were amazing. I know you enjoyed it, don't try to lie to yourself, trust me, I would know if you did." He took a step towards me and poked me with a claw. A drop of blood on his claw stained my suit. He drew a line up with that hand and stopped so he could look me in the eye, waiting to see if I was going to react. _

_He clawed at my chest, ripping through my suit and leaving three long bloody gashes in me. I fell to the ground clutching my body. Three identical tears appeared on his chest, only he seemed immune to the sharp pain that was coursing through my body. He towered over me and looked down malevolently. His blood dripped onto my body, and my blood was beginning to form a pool around me. His haunting smile grew impossibly larger to the point of where it resembled the Grinch. He began kicking me in the sides, breaking a few of my ribs. Then he stomped on my chest with the same leg. I coughed up drops of blood and closed my eyes out of the needle like pain in my chest. _

_"Get up." He demanded of me. I couldn't because his foot was still on me. Slowly his face became human again, only it wasn't me. It was Locke, except, he had my eyes. His sickly yellow teeth shone through his demonic grin. He rolled me over so I was on my knees. I tried to get up but he grabbed my head and brought me up so I was eye level with him. His face was still the same but I found myself staring into my own eyes. My terrified expression reflected behind blood red lenses, and I found that I was staring at myself. My body was paralyzed with shear primal fear, as the monstrosity before me began laughing at my terror. There was a sharp twisting pain in my neck and the world around me went black._

When I awoke I was still staring out the window of the plane, the only light was coming from the plane, the rest of the world was black. I opened the pocket watch, it was about four in the morning. I sighed openly and heavily knowing that no one would hear me. Even in my dreams I was still haunted by the shadows of life. Everywhere I looked it seemed as though there was no end to this tunnel. No light at the end that I could look for.

I didn't sleep the rest of the night, I just stared out the window looking for even the faintest glimpse of a star, but the abyss around the plane was all consuming. The man next to me began snoring heavily, killing any hopes I might have had about going back to sleep. The memories of the day came back slowly, but they were still as fresh as ever. Needless to say I wasn't thinking of joining Chu's fan club any time soon. Not mention that there was someone that wanted Chu dead, and that was a mystery that was far from being solved. Alister was quite the card though, he knew about Erases so he wasn't completely ignorant, but he was a wild card. I couldn't seem to pin him down, I hoped that that wasn't the only time I'd ever see him.

As the seconds ticked by painfully slow the plane eventually landed. Hastily we left the gate and found our bags. Hades was waiting for us at the terminal to give us a ride back to the School. He smiled once he caught sight of me, I shook his hand.

"How is she?" I asked, not really caring if Alex overheard us.

"Worried sick, but she'll be fine once she sees you." Of course, I wouldn't have expected anything less. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw a groggy Alex roll his eyes, but I decided not to fire back. "What about you? I over heard Jeb talking with Chu, it sounded like Chu was furious."

"Let's just say that he wont be asking for any Erasers as bodyguards anytime soon." I replied calmly as we walked out of the terminal. Hades just nodded slightly and smirked, getting everything he needed from the tone of my voice. A limo from the School was waiting for us outside. Hades put our suitcases in the trunk, Alex sat shotgun while Hades and me sat in the back. It felt good to be back in a world that I recognized, after yesterday I needed some normalcy in my life. It's a shame that normalcy has been a hard thing to come by in my life, but I suppose normal is a point of view.

I caught a glance at the world around me as the limo made its way through the wasteland concealing the School. Flashes of browns and gritty sand and dust, patches of dry greens. It was what I was the most familiar with. I wish I could say that I was going home, but I've spent so much time away from the School that I find it hard to call it that. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Hades would occasionally glance at me making sure that everything was truly okay. I couldn't blame him for worrying, I had hardly said a thing. Then my mind found its way to Phoenix, I pleaded a silent prayer that she had been fine, but knowing how futile it was to ask her not to care I abandoned that idea quickly. I was all she had really. She had no family, her life before becoming an Eraser was only a faint memory now.

I wondered what it was like to have a family. An older brother to protect you, someone closer then just a friend. A mother, a father. I had no one to look at except Odin, Phoenix and Hades. I remembered when I was younger; Jeb was the only person I knew, but as the years passed away he seemed to grow ever distant, and now he didn't even seem to be the same person that I first knew. When Alpha pack was formed I remembered I was cautious of the people I had perceived to be strangers. But then I fell in love with Phoenix and the rest was history. I smiled at the memory, and seeing the look on my face Hades smiled too, finally concluding that everything really be okay.

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Wow, parts of this chapter turned out to be darker then I had intended. But I can't blame Felix with all of the confusion in his head, so much has happened already, and there is so much more that has to happen. Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


	24. Chapter 24

Oh this will be good, Felix gets back to the School and he has a long over due confrontation with everyone's favorite psychopathic madman. I guarantee an exciting plot and unforeseen events in the near future.

I own nothing!

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Chapter 24: Confronting a Nightmare

It wasn't long after that that we arrived at the School. I waited until Alex had gotten out, grabbed his suitcase and left the garage before I got out of the limo. Hades slid out and closed the door behind him while I got my suitcase out of the trunk. I shot a look at Hades who was looking at Odin's covered motorcycle, still unused since the day me an Phoenix had stolen it and taken it for a ride.

"Do you have any idea where she would be?" I asked Hades, he still looked at the motorcycle.

"Not a clue, try the break room or her room, if I see her I'll tell her to meet you in the break room."

"Thanks." I said as I closed the trunk with the suitcase in hand. As I walked passed him I placed a hand on his shoulder. "Really." He smirked.

"Like I said, don't mention it." He said, now examining the other vehicles in the garage. I shook my head jokingly as I closed the door to the garage behind me. Now I was back in the ever familiar white halls that I must have spent countless hours walking down. I made my way through the maze of hallways and security doors that lead to my room. Phoenix's room was just across the hall from mine, and Odin's vacant room was just to the right of mine. I knocked on Phoenix's door first, no answer. I opened it, she wasn't asleep, she wasn't even there. as I turned around to go to my room, my eyes became fixated on Odin's door. I set my suitcase down and cautiously opened his door.

It was as if he wasn't even gone, his suits still hung in the closet, his bed was neatly made, but a fine layer of dust covered everything because of disuse. On his nightstand there was a framed picture just like the one he had given Phoenix. I picked it up and dusted it off. It was of the three of us one year ago on her birthday. The three of us had genuine smiles of joy on our faces, sad to say since that picture was taken the smiles had been few and far between. I could clearly remember the look Odin would give me every time me and Phoenix would sneak off, he was always worried about her, and I never knew exactly how he felt about me. It was almost like he had been testing me at times. I didn't know whether I should laugh or not as more memories crept up in my mind. Various pranks and practical jokes, sometimes the downtime between missions would get very boring so it bred chaos when it could. I did chuckle a little, but it was hollow and sentimental. I set the picture down as I left his room. I didn't want to close the door, not wanting to end this chapter, not wanting to shut him out of my life. Sad to say that his door closed all on its own as I opened the door to my room.

I sighed as I tossed my suitcase on my bed. I was still tired from not getting any sleep last night. The air grew still around me and the only sounds I could hear were my breathing and the faint ticking of my pocket watch. Even now there was no peace to be found. I didn't want to linger in the past any longer so I left my room headed towards the break room. Then I came to the cursed intersection of hallways that lead to the break room and to the holding unit. Just as I had expected I heard Locke in my head.

_Why don't you come and pay me a visit?_

I didn't want to go, but it was as if I was being compelled to go to his cell. My nightmare from the night before flooded my mind, Locke laughing at me, and my eyes in his head. As always I was looking for answers that I was not going to find.

_Oh come now, you never know what you might find until you look._

I walked down the hall leading to the holding unit nonchalantly, I wasn't in the mood for this, in fact I'm sure that it was the last thing that I could possibly have needed at that moment. One by one I undid the numerous security locks that held Locke confined in his prison, every single one of them seemed necessary to hold back the mad man that was shackled up behind the final door. It was as if he hadn't moved since my last encounter with him. He was still sitting in the same spot, in the same position, with his book opened up to the same page. His smile was strikingly familiar, it was the same smile he had during my dream, it was as if he was doing it on purpose.

"How was Seattle? From the sound of it, Chu wasn't to happy with you and Alex." His lowered his head and examined the last thing he had scrawled in his book.

"It doesn't matter." I said, trying to kill the conversation.

"You're right, that doesn't matter, but something else does." He said knowingly. One of his eyebrows rose, but he continued to look down, he seemed almost to be avoiding eye contact with me. It was disturbing how he seemed to know everything even before I said it, even before I thought it. "I'm sure that you never expected to befriend an assailant." My eyes couldn't help but snap open, I hadn't even hinted about Alister. He began to laugh that same laugh from my nightmare. "Oh come now, you honestly didn't think that there is any security or solitude in your mind did you? Your conscious is like an open book to me boy, and there is no way that you can close it." There was nothing that I could keep private, he was literally reading my mind, and I was powerless to do anything about it. I felt violated on a level that I didn't even think was possible.

"Why are you doing this?"

"The same reason as always, and it's starting to pain me that you haven't put the pieces together yet. True I have the power to read minds, but it goes far beyond that, you have no idea what I'm capable of. I don't plan on telling you my plan now, that I'll save for the future when it's more relevant, when you've started on your journey of self discovery." I was just about to ask him what he meant but he continued. "I've been trying to give you a push in the right direction but it seems as though my efforts have been for not, please tell me that they haven't. You have such a future in front of you, and there is nothing worse then unused potential." He was smiling as if he was unfolding some grand scheme that had been in the making for years.

"Why me? Why me? Why won't you leave me alone? What does all of this mean? Am I supposed to believe you on all accounts, is everything I know a lie?" My fists were clenched into fists, and my confusion was turning into rage and self loathing, when you're confused the only one you can blame is yourself. Locke chuckled.

"They say that the insane people are the ones running the asylum. Who knows, maybe the truth has been staring you in the face this whole time, you just have to open your eyes to see it." The asylum, he belonged in one, and if this continued any longer I might too. He looked up and finally made eye contact with me, his eyes were like black holes, hypnotically blank, and deceptively calm. "After all, why else would things be the way they are. Jeb's unfit for his job, he can't handle the stress of it all, and I doubt that he'll live ever live up to my expectations." There was a hint of spite in his voice, what did he have against Jeb?

"What does this have to do with Jeb?" All I could do was pick away at him until I found the answers I was looking for. The real question was if I'd ever find them.

"Well he made you who you are didn't he? He's responsible for molding you into the Eraser you are, the Alpha male." Puns, now he was just toying with me like a puppet on strings. He stood up, his tattered, dusty, dirty Eraser suit fell about him and the chains that bound him to the floor pooled at his feet. He began walking around his cell, around me, never coming closer then a few feet away, and yet, I felt as though I was being circled by vultures, waiting for me to die before they could strike. "A respectable member of the breed, the first of our kind to work to live. Your life isn't limited like those failures that fill the ranks. You are special in your own right, but there is so much more to you then that.

"You know more about the workings of Itex then most of the breed, you have been granted that knowledge because of your position. Has it ever occurred that you might have not worked, that you might have been expected to fail? What if everything you knew and loved was all because of chance, because of fate?" He grew silent, his last words still hanging in the air. He paced back over to his spot and sat back down with his legs crossed. He scribbled down something and looked back up at me, he jotted down a last note, set his pen aside, and closed the book. It had occurred to me that I might not have ever existed, but why would he bring up that? What was he trying to tell me? He was always hinting about a past that I had before I became an Eraser, but I can't remember any of that.

"I'll ask you one last time and then I'm leaving. What do you want, what are you trying to do?" He stared at me blankly for a moment, and then he let out a small sigh.

"Nothing has changed, I'm trying to get you to see what is in front of you. I'm trying to help you recover what is hidden from you, what you've lost. That illusive past of yours, I know that you can find it, but it looks as though you will need more then a push. Maybe a Virgil to-" He stopped mid sentence and began blinking as though he was in incredulous about something I was completely oblivious to. He began looking around the room as if he was looking for something he couldn't find. When he stopped he was staring right at me with a blank face, piercing me with his eyes. His nightmare of a smile spread across his face revealing his teeth, only now, they were fangs. "I suggest you leave, wasn't there something else that you need to do?" An eyebrow rose over his smile. I spun around, left, and slammed the door behind me.

I was aggravated. He lured me in there, effectively confused me, and was able to get rid of me without giving up any of the answers I was looking for. If anything I left with more questions then I went in with. I paced down the hall towards the break room, my foot steps echoing down the hallway. The usual stillness in the air that was a trademark of the School was somehow ominous now, and the silence seemed to foreshadow an impending storm.

When I did get to the break room it was empty, a newspaper was on the coffee table that looked as though it had been hastily set aside. As I made my way to my chair I noticed that the _Inferno_ was in it. The book mark was just a few pages shy of the end. Looks like Phoenix did some reading when I was gone. I picked up the book and sat in my chair, Locke's last words haunted my mind. Why exactly did he ask me to leave, there was something that I wasn't seeing. I freely let out a heavy sigh knowing that no one would here me. The fatigue that I had eluded all day finally caught up to me. I closed my eyes for just a moment, sadly to say that was all I got before Hades came bursting through the door as though the world was about to end. The look on his face just hinted of details that he was going to purposely leave out for my sake.

"What's wrong?"

"She's fighting Alex in the training room." That's all he had to say, and I was out my chair and out of the room before he even closed the door behind us. I ran as though I was being chased by the devil himself through the hall of the School. I wished that it wasn't so long of a way from the break room to the training room. Hades had a hard time keeping up with me and it wasn't long before I heard him shout that I was to go on without him.

I burst through the door to the training room and ran at the sparring cage. A twenty foot tall chain link fence that would serve a boundary separated me from Phoenix and Alex. the fence clattered as I collided with it, gripping what I could with my hands.

"Phoenix!" I cried out to her in vain. They were both in their Eraser forms, she was darting around him, trying her best to evade him all the while trying to land a blow. Alex was on all fours prowling around and growling at what he thought of as his prey, I could see it in his eyes, he was consumed by the blood lust. Phoenix was somewhat composed, but she didn't seem quite herself as if she was in a rage that I had only seen once before in my life. It was like the first time she ever became an Eraser, unable to control herself, an outlet for nothing but pure rage and adrenaline.

She launched herself at him, he swung with his right arm, knocking her to the side and ripping the side of her suit. He smiled wickedly as he jumped at her while she was recovering, she stepped t the side and tore away at his leg, tearing a thin long gash in it. Alex hissed at the numbing pain and swung at her again catching her off balance. She caught sight of me clinging to the fence.

"Felix!" I was a distraction and Alex knew it. He jumped at her and pinned her to the ground. Out of primal terror she returned to her normal form and screamed bloody murder, and all I could do would look on helplessly paralyzed in equal fear. Alex placed both his hands on her neck and picked her up off the ground. She kicked him in the chest multiple times, effectively knocking the wind out of him once, but she was unable to loosen his grip on her neck. Alex tightened his grip, and I could hear her gasping for air. I could see her eyes, those groves that I had been lost in countless time were now on fire, being destroyed right before my eyes. Then it came. A final wicked laugh, a terrified scream, a gasp, a snap, and she went limp in his malicious hands.

* * *

Please don't kill me! Trust me I didn't want this to happen as much as you! If you want to see what happens next you'll have to keep me alive so I can write it.

Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


	25. Chapter 25

Oh yeah! I've been waiting for this moment a long time, Felix versus Alex! My money's on the man who just had the love of his life murdered right before his eyes. This will most certainly be epic. *smiles like the evil madman that he really is*

I own nothing!

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Chapter 25: V for...

Nothing is more morbid then seeing the girl of you dreams in the arms of another man, especially when she's dead. Her body fell to the ground in a hauntingly heavy heap. Alex left his arms out in he air, as if he too was stunned by what had just occurred. I could still hear her calling out my name, but her voice began to fade as my core burned in a fire that threatened my control. My white knuckled death grip became so great that Hades had to pull me off of the fence, I heaved him away, callously tossing aside his charity as I was immune to anything but hatred.

"Alex!" I roared, my being erupted in rage, and the monstrous Eraser in me exploded. He spun around to find me on all fours, claws digging into the sandy ground, fangs exposed, ready to rip his flesh from his bones. For a mere moment I thought I saw a flash of fear, but it was dissolved in his own rage, blinded by his blood lust. I ran at him, tearing my way through the fence as though it was nonexistent. I jumped at him and he leaped off to the side. I ran at him, swinging a paw, aiming for a lethal strike. He ducked and tackled me to the ground, he kicked me in the side and I got to my feet as quickly as I could.

All of my hate for him was flowing freely now. All of those threats were coming back. Every time one of us said 'bite me' flashed in my mind, this was it. There was no turning back, one of us wasn't leaving this room alive, and I knew for a fact that it wasn't going to be me. Not after I had lost everything. He began laughing at me, as though he had been anticipating this, itching for the time when we final settled everything.

He charged at me and stopped just short of my arm's reach, he swung his right leg trying to kick me in the ribs. I grabbed his leg mid swing and twisted, making him crash into the ground. I leaped on him and punched him in the side if the head once, twice, and finally I broke his nose. Being an Eraser it was odd seeing blood run out of a snout, but Alex was completely blinded by his rage, and shook off the pain as his dark red blood ran in a small stream from his now crooked snout. He slashed at my chest, and in the process of dodging I got off him, he took the opportunity to get to his feet and he ran at me again, he swung with his left paw, catching my right shoulder and making me spin from the force. He growled as a drop of my blood hit the sand.

"Come on! Surely this isn't all you've got Big Bad. Especially after I've killed your friends." A simple grammatical error, and yet it meant the world to me. Friends. Phoenix and Odin. He had killed them both! My mind was temporarily thrown back to that fateful day in Siberia, that blow couldn't have killed Odin, he was tougher then that, Alex must have shot him! I roared at him, and he laughed at the display.

I charged at him like a mad bull, throwing a punch with my left paw, and a slash with my right. I was aiming for him chest, but somehow he was evading every blow I was throwing. He got inside my reach and kicked me in the sternum, knocking me on my jumped on me and pinned me just like how I had pinned him.

"I'm going to kill you!" I barked at him. It was no threat, it was a promise. He looked down, madness just behind his icy cold gaze.

"Bite me." He hissed in my face. His paw was on my shoulder, I threw my head to the side and clamped down on his wrist, my fangs breaking through skin, flesh, sinew, and finally cracking bone. Alex howled at the unexpected assault and reared back, swatting at the back of my head with his good hand making me black out for a second while he got up. I got to my feet and steadied myself. The world was still spinning but I could see that his hand had gone limp.

His glacier eyes shot fiery darts at me, but they were sparks compared to the wild fire that burned me to the core. I wanted to make him suffer, make him beg for a mercy that would never come. I wanted him to lose it all, lose everything that he ever felt anything for. He had robbed me of the two most important people in my life, the closest thing I ever had to a family, he took it all away! He didn't deserve to live a moment longer, not as long as I continued to draw breath he couldn't exist.

Alex ran at me and swung with his dead hand and slashed at me with the other. I swatted away the menacing paw, and grabbed his already shattered wrist, I twisted one way and then sharply in the opposite direction. He screamed in raw blistering agony and ripped at my exposed side, shredding my suit and tearing bloody gashes on my rib cage. They burned about as bright as a match compared to me, I felt as though fire was going to shoot out of my eyes. It was his icy cold disposition against the raging hatred blazing inside me. I kicked him in the core, and then punched him in the head again, ripping open his skin at the eyebrow. He fell back readied himself and did a roundhouse kick, I simply stepped back out of his range and ran at him, kicking him in the chest, he couched up blood as he fell. He took the momentum and turned it into a back flip and as he landed on his feet he popped the knuckles in his good hand.

This fight had been years in the making, and neither one of us was going to back down, no matter the cost. Hades looked on at us dumbfounded by it all, mouth agape at the horrific spectacle that was unfolding itself before his eyes. My gaze shot only for a painful moment at Phoenix, her lifeless body still on the battlefield. I growled at Alex, letting the eraser in my show it's true personality, an untamed beast of pure malice and unrestrained power.

We ran at each other, Alex threw a punch and I caught his fist in the middle of the swing. I tore away at his chest leaving three long bloody tears in him, identical to the ones in my nightmare. He kneed me in the stomach and then kicked my freshly bruised core. I fell forward, catching him in the shoulder and threw him face first into the ground. I got to my feet and kicked him in the head until he blacked out. I stopped not wanting it to end so easily. I wanted to see the life in his eyes go out like a candle, silent and swift. He got to his knees, blood dripping from his mouth, nose, and eye brow. He looked at me in the eye, his cold glacial gaze began to melt into blood lust. He wanted me dead as much as I wanted him dead. He got to his feet, his bad hand hanging off to the side. He began to growl at me and he actually looked angry. He wasn't himself, just the way he was acting, this was what he was truly like as an Eraser. No wonder Alister's men didn't stand a chance.

"If you don't have the spine to end this then I will!" He yelled as he ran at me like an animal, on all fours. He was numb to the pain in his bad hand and he began throwing punches with it again, not caring what happened. He pounced on me, knocking me to the ground, I kneed him in the stomach and gnashed at the base of his uncovered neck. He let loose a blood curdling roar inches away from my face as my fangs sunk into the base of his neck. He got up and stomped on my chest, I coughed up a fleck of blood. I punched him in the side of the knees and he dropped to his other knee. I managed to get to my feet and land a blow to the back of his head. He got back on his feet and spit blood at me, followed by a sickening smile.

I threw a punch but he grabbed my arm and sank his fangs into my forearm. His fangs went between the bones, grasping my arm in his vice like mandibles. I kicked him in the knee and he released my arm and I finished the punch knocking him to the ground. I pinned him to the ground and grabbed his shoulders.

"You've taken everything from me! My friends, my family!" I slammed his head up and down again and again, each succeeding time harder then the last. His eyes opened and closed as he blacked out and came to again and again. Then there was a snap and his heavy breathing stopped. The tension in his body eased and his arms fell limp at his sides. He was dead.

The air hung like an executioner's blade before the swing, the only sound was my heavy breathing. I couldn't believe it, he was gone. I wanted to feel happy and yet I wasn't. If anything I felt empty inside as the raging fire subsided, leaving a gaping hole inside of me. His eyes were open and they had the same blank stare that Odin had when he died. I returned to my normal form and walked over to Phoenix and fell on my knees beside her. Her eyes were open too, and I couldn't bare to look at them. Those once green groves that filled me with a sense of peace were now burnt to the ground. Her eyes seemed to scream hollow wails of pain, they were an unsettling shade of gray, reflecting the loss of her life. I shut my eyes and clenched my fists.

She was gone, I refused to believe it. She couldn't be gone, not after everything that had happened. I willed it all undone but to no avail. My pain swelled inside of my in place of the anger. I yelled at no one, no place to focus my anguish and it flowed freely from me, threatening to tear me apart at the seems. I slammed my fists into the ground, as far as I was concerned this warranted that outburst, it warranted so much more, but I refused to feed the beast inside of me. I couldn't afford to let myself become consumed by the depression that was on the doorstep of my sanity. It's a shame to say that I failed. As far as I was concerned the world could have ended right then and there and I wouldn't have cared. I had nothing to live for anymore, my hopes and dreams were scattered to the wind.

As if fate wouldn't allow me to have a moments peace Hades ran in the room with Jeb in tow. Jeb looked as though the world was ending and he stared at me with an open mouth, the words necessary to express how he felt escaped him entirely. He closed his mouth, sighed remorsefully, and shook his head back and forth. He motioned at Alex's body and Hades picked him up and carried him out of the room leaving only my and Jeb in the room with Phoenix's body. I could feel him looking at me, examining what he had seen, and judging what to do based on my reactions.

"Why didn't you do anything?" I was aggravated, the rage came back as it sensed a possible target but I bottled it up as best I could. I knew there were cameras all over the School, I knew Jeb knew about the fights, but he didn't react to them. He didn't answer my question. "Why Jeb?" He sighed and looked away from me. "Answer me!" I shouted at him as I got up and spun around to face him. "Why didn't you do anything!" Still no answer. I felt betrayed, the man responsible for me, the man who created me was betraying me, lying to my face.

"Trust me when I say that I was as shocked as you are-"

"That's not what I asked for Jeb!" He was avoiding the topic at hand, he knew it was a bad idea to make me more aggravated then I already was. we stayed like that for a minute or two, he just stood there, motionless, as I slowed my breathing and tried to become rational again.

"Alex did kill Odin." I didn't respond. "When I was examining him I found one of the darts had gone through the coat and pierced his heart, the toxin was the catalyst for a spontaneous cardiac arrest, he was dead before he hit the ground. Alex had timed the shot perfectly." Still no response from me, I don't know whether I was in shock or incredulous but for some reason I didn't respond. "Felix I didn't tell you because I didn't want this to happen, it wasn't worth it, look at what's happened, both Alex and Phoenix are dead."

"I can see that!" I finally exploded. "No thanks to you!" He had no excuse and I could tell that he was disappointed in himself. He was avoiding looking me in the eye. Eventually he crossed his arms behind his back and left the room. I waited until the door closed behind him before I fell back to my knees. My mind kept screaming to itself. Why, why, why? Nothing made sense anymore, what the fragments of the truth I could still make out pieced together a shattered picture. And now, I was all alone, and there was no waking up from this nightmare.

* * *

Yeah, I went there. Everything he knows is a lie! Odin is dead, Alex is dead, Phoenix is dead, oh come on. The death note can't be that long can it? Yes, yes it can. But I assure that it's all for good reason. Phoenix had to die because it's all part of the plot, same as every one else. Well, except Alex, I was looking forward to ending his existence, and I hope that you were looking forward to it too.

But nevertheless the story must go on. Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


	26. Chapter 26

After that last chapter, I can't help but feel sad for Felix. He doesn't deserve this, none of my characters do. Well... Maybe Locke, but he's a special case. Alright, alright, now I know some of you want me dead for what I've just done. But I promise, I would never do anything to my OCs that I wouldn't have to. Everything has a purpose in this story.

Locke: Everything. *smiles wickedly*

AwtCW: Oh snap...

I own nothing!

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Chapter 26: Exorcism

I don't know how long I was there, down at Phoenix's side. Long enough for my wounds to start to heal, long enough for the light coming through the windows to fade into the darkness of the encroaching night, long enough for me to run out of tears and for my eyes to start burning. I had lost all sense of time and I would have had no idea how long I was there until Hades came up and crouched down. He put a hand on my shoulder and hung his head low. His hand was heavy, as if he didn't have the strength to hold it up himself. He gave my shoulder a slight tug, pleading for me to leave and get some sleep. I knew that if I did go to my room I would just lie awake the whole night, staring at the ceiling. He didn't say anything, but I knew what he meant the whole time he was there.

I was obliterated on the inside, my soul had conceded to defeat and there was not a spark of joy in me. My world seemed to have all life and color drained out of it. I was beyond feeling sad, there wasn't anything left in me to fuel emotion. My heavy arms slid underneath her, catching her in the back of the knees and at her back, and as I rose to my knees and turned towards the door Hades stepped to the side. His head was still down and his eyes were closed. He was racked with guilt, failure loomed over him like a storm cloud. I don't know why he would blame himself, I suppose that it would be natural, but it wasn't his fault. If it was anyone's it was mine. I should have known, I shouldn't have just stood there, I should have saved her.

_Would of, could of, should of._

"Locke!" I nearly fell back to my knees, but Hades ran over and caught me. He was the only thing keeping me off the ground in that regrettable moment in my pitiful excuse of a life. Had I really become this weak, did I really not have the strength to resist anymore? I was nothing but a dead tree waiting to be blown over by the next wind storm.

"Come on, on your feet." Hades said rather melancholy as he lifted me up. I couldn't help but look at his face, he was holding back his pain, still retaining what little control he had over himself. To be honest, he was the one that walked me out of that room. My feet hit the tiled floor of the School's halls like dead weights. Load unchallenged thumps bounced off the halls. This place was becoming a morgue, a holding place for the dead where the living wondered the halls, looking around every corner for fear of what they may encounter. A passing shadow, a memory of the past, but they all have the same effect, torture.

Hades opened the door to the laboratory and I walked in. the scientists were huddled around a table, blocking my view of what they were examining. On of them turned around, his eyes widened at the sight of me bloodied, beaten, and carrying Phoenix. They all stopped and stood up, looking at waiting for what I was going to do next. The dried trails of tears marked my face, and it couldn't have been more evident of the condition I was in. I took a few steps forward, Hades lingered at the door. The white coats parted like the Red Sea showing me Alex's body on the table. The blank canvas that was my face became painted in an instant, and I shot the most frightening look I could ever remember at the scientists. They put Alex's body on a gurney and wheeled his corpse into the next room. I placed Phoenix on the table, my gaze not leaving her lifeless face. One by one the scientists left the table, I didn't need to hear it, but I could tell that Hades had done something to make them lost all sense of time i don't know how long I was standing there, but eventually I heard the door click shut, and the only noises in the room were my slow heavy breathing and the constant hum of the computers.

I hung over Phoenix as though I was as lifeless as she was. Even in death her face seemed peaceful, were as mine was contorted by a tsunami of unchecked emotions. The love of my life lay before me and all I could do was look at her, powerless to bring her back to me. It was as if my worst nightmares had been brought to life , and I was forced to live through them until I woke up to find that this was all a lie. The sickest cruelest lie that had ever been constructed. My hands balled up into fists, the glowing coals of rage inside of me hadn't died out completely, but without a target, it would destroy its host. I had to leave for my own sake.

I can't remember if I looked back at her on the table, the pain of it all had turned the memory into shards of broken glass that seemed to pierce me, jutting out into space in erratic patterns and designs. A piece of modern art whose title was despair, and only comparable to The Scream in execution.

_I warned you, perhaps it did take more then a push out the door._

Locke's voice rang clear in my empty mind, my defenses were down, and he was free to roam my mind and torture me.

_Don't you remember when I warned you? It is dangerous to hold on to attachments, they only serve to cause you pain and distraction. But then again I was the same way before as well. I know how you feel Felix, you feel betrayed, annihilated, and furious. You're confused because nothing makes sense anymore, you've been lied to your face, you have every right to be angry. After all, the love of your life has just been murdered, and you used your anger when you killed Alex. Yes I know you felt it, the anger, the rage, they are all the shadow of the blood lust. All your life you've thought that you were immune to it, superior to the rest of the breed, let me assure you, you are not. You have it too, the need to spill blood, the need to fill the power void that is inside each and every one of us. _

_I can see it in your eyes, the madness, slowly creeping up on you, waiting for the opportune moment to strike when you are the most vulnerable, and when it does, it will consume you just as it did Alex. You will become a beast in every sense of the word, unable to control yourself, unable to make conscious decisions, and when you've reached that ever so pivotal point, that is when you and I will meet an agreement. I'm awaiting the day that you give in too your madness, just as I had all those countless years ago. We are not so different, you are just like I was, you just don't see it yet. But I suppose I'll let destiny take its course and let you continue to fall apart._

As his voice faded away I fell to my knees again. Peace was impossible to find, I was haunted by both the living and the dead. I doubted that even an exorcism would be enough to free me from this haunting. My hands balled into fists, my finger nails left tiny moon shaped depressions in my hands, I was numb to the stinging sensation and it took every ounce of strength I could muster to unclench my white knuckled hands. I grabbed onto the doorknob and used it to prop myself up. I refused to look back against all the guilt that harrowed me. I walked on the tiled floor as silently as the ghosts that followed me everywhere. Once I heard the door click shut behind me I broke into a mad run for my room.

I ripped open my door and crashed on my bed in a heavy heap. My body shook, unable to rid itself of the poison coursing through my veins. I don't know how long I was there but at one point I passed out from raw exhaustion. My dreams, rather nightmares, were flashes of what had just occurred, again and again, like a movie played on a loop that could melt the mind. I was strapped to a chair and Forced by Locke and Jeb to watch the movies over and over again. A lone light bulb above me flickered on and off exactly like the one in Locke's cell. Their insane cackling echoed off nonexistent walls, and they continued to ring in my ears as my eyes fluttered back open as I awoke. I was under the covers, someone had come in. I laid their in my bed for the rest of the day, ignoring the rumbling from my stomach. When I woke up the next day I recalled something Jeb had told me after Odin died. Everything had to move on, progress cannot be halted.

I swung my feet over the edge of my bed and they hit the floor in a dull thump. I swear everything actually was a deeper shade of gray, worse then after Odin was murdered. No, I swear someone had actually gone and painted the halls a different color. My head was hung so low that as I went about the beginning of my day that everyone I passed by knew automatically to stay out of my way. Hades was the only one who even tried to cheer me up, even though he knew that it was a fruitless effort.

I sat in the cafeteria staring blankly at the tray of food in front of me. Hades sat across the table from me, stirring away at the nothing on his tray. Finally he slammed his spoon down and the cafeteria went as silent as a graveyard. the sudden outburst snapped me out of the depression induced trance and my gaze drifted up to his troubled countenance.

"This is ridiculous." He said as if he had put up with something far too long. "I'm going to talk to Jeb." he got up from his seat and took one step towards the door.

"Hades, don't." His head snapped around at the first words I had uttered since that fateful day. I couldn't judge what he was feeling, I knew he felt obligated to do something and yet he didn't know exactly what. He was in shock at my sudden and unexpected reaction. "He's not worth your time." I got up from my seat and walked slowly over to his side.

"Felix... I can't take it. Why haven't they done anything? Why hasn't there been a big reaction like after what happened to Odin. I feel betrayed. I need answers." I placed a heavy hand on his shoulder. He closed his eyes and sighed. "Why don't they do anything, forget the company policy, don't we matter to them?" Part of me wanted to tell him what Jeb had told me when I was made the head of Alpha pack, part of me felt that he was right. I did feel betrayed that Jeb hadn't done a thing to stop any of it, about how insensitive he had acted about everything. He had been lying to not only me, but to the breed, this whole time. I didn't know what to do, or what to say for that matter.

Hades stared at me, hoping to get an answer or even just a reaction out of me. My hand slid off of his shoulder and I motioned at the table, he sat back down and I took my spot opposite him back.

"Not now, we wont get any of the answers we're looking for now." I doubted that we ever would, but I wanted him to retain any sense of hope that he had left in him. "Let me finish, then we'll go talk to him." A faint grin appeared on his face for no more then a second. He was elated that I was at least doing something.

Hades waited until I was finished and he took away my tray. I lead the way to the lab where I was sure I would find Jeb. I hadn't seen him since he had come to me after I killed Alex, I began to wonder how he was reacting to all of this on a personal level. He was hurt on some level after Odin was killed, I began to wonder what would happen to Alpha pack, Jeb had said that some people were never replaceable. To me, Phoenix wasn't and never would be. Part of me died with her just like it did with Odin. Death seemed so natural, and yet what it took away meant the world. I felt as though now there was a whole in me, not where me heart was, but somewhere in my chest. A vague sensation of hollowness and familiarity that chilled me to the core. Death was my shadow, and I desperately needed a room without shadows.

* * *

Locke: Why are you toying with the poor soul?

AwtCW: I should be asking you the same thing.

Locke: I'm not toying with him. You are because you're writing this.

AwtCW: *cringes at the truth* Get back in your cell! Why did I even let you out in the first place?

Well aside from me having a conversation with everyone's favorite psychopath, I hope that you all want to kill me a little less. All will be resolved in the end. Unfortunately for Felix it just might take a while to get there. Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


	27. Chapter 27

Well I know that it's been awhile since I last updated. The internet at my house is down and I'm only able to do this from my friend's house. So a massive thank you to him and his family.

There's lots of stuff to cover so pay attention. Oh and many thanks to my readers for being so patient with me.

I own nothing!

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Chapter 27: Lone Wolf

I opened the door to the laboratory to find the same group of scientists huddled around the examination table. Once Hades stepped in behind me and the door closed, every last one of them shot me a weary look, unsure of how we would act around them this time. Hades took one step forward and crossed his arms over his chest impatiently.

"Where's Jeb?" One of the scientists glanced at another, silently guessing who was going to respond to the demand.

"He should be in the conference room in a few minutes, but I don't know where he is." Of course, no one was supposed to know where Jeb was every second of the day, he had so many secret meetings with other Itex officials that they weren't much of a secret, only what happened during them was. Hades looked unsatisfied with the answer, the scientist stuttered before he continued. "He'll be there at eight." We had ten minutes. The scientists began to shuffle uneasily and I managed to catch a glimpse of the blind avian strapped to the table. He was unconscious but his cloudy eyes were wide open, staring off into space as though he were dead. Goosebumps covered my arms, I couldn't bear the sight of another body that wasn't moving.

I paced into the containment room and was meant with the disturbingly familiar sight of wide frightened eyes all falling on me. Cages filled with experiments lined the walls. Metal bars with hand grips worn into them were abandoned as the experiments cowered in the back of their cages. With every step I took into the room, they inched father and father back, terrified of the monster that stood before them. My gaze was drawn to the avians at the end of the room. They were isolated from the rest of the failing experiments because of special interest Itex seemed to have with them, memories of my time in Paris came back. The way Isaac acted about his wings seemed so unsettling, to him they were a curse, they took away the world instead of opening it up. The bitter irony of it all, sadly it seemed as though life was in no short supply of that.

One of the avians shuffled in the back of their cage, it was the little blond one. Bright emotional eyes met mine and I felt as though I was being read like a book. She cringed in her cage as though she had been exposed to a living nightmare, and yet, her eyes never left mine. For a moment I could see everything I was feeling reflected in her, all of the pain and anguish, the rage and confusion. Tears formed and fell from her eyes as if she knew what was happening to me. The curse of empathy was tormenting her. I crouched down next to the cage and wrapped my fingers around the bars.

"Leave me alone!" She cried out finally, unable to bear it anymore. I cringed at her pain, a fresh sting compared to the numbing pain that I was doomed to live with.

_Why wont you leave me alone! Just go away!_

Her screams rattled the inside of my mind and I felt compelled to leave. I got up and turned away from the cage, the faint sobs from the little avian came from behind me. I didn't know if it felt everything I did, but the only conclusion I could find was that I pitied the poor creature, and yet, I found no mote of happiness in that conclusion.

I drifted back into the main room of the laboratory, the scientists were still huddled around the avian, but Hades was gone. One of the scientists was receptive of the look I was giving them and wordlessly pointed at the door. Hades was waiting for me outside and he started towards the conference room as soon as the door clicked shut. He had his hands in his pockets and his head was down, it was as if something new was on his mind. I sighed, acknowledging that he was troubled. He smirked in response, an unsung brotherhood was about the only thing I had left. Sad to say I didn't think that it was going to be enough.

When we arrived at the conference room we found Jeb was sitting at the far end of the table, stacks of files were on either side of him and a lengthy document was in his hands. He didn't looked to pleased, as if every conceivable thing that could go wrong did go wrong. He looked up at the two of us and grinned weakly, but when he got a good look at the expressions on our faces the grin flipped upside down.

"You're back." He said burying his face back into the document. "Good, time halts for no man, or for remorse." He flipped a page and scratched something out with a pen. Hades shot him a look for his tone. "Forgive me for my insensitivity, but it's just as before. From this moment on Alpha pack is dissolved." I could hardly believe it, never before had a pack been dissolved. He looked up. "Felix, you are free to do whatever you want, you'll receive no more missions." He looked as though part of the world had been destroyed. I was simply incredulous. No more pack, no more missions. For the first time in a long time I was actually feeling emotion.

"What do you mean?" Hades was in shear disbelief as well. There was no answer, we all knew what it meant. I was a free agent, any missions I took would be off the record, as far as Itex was concerned, I didn't exist, none of Alpha pack did. I wanted to feel angry, but when Jeb looked me in the eyes I could see the pain in them as well, Jeb had been internalizing it all. Everything. From Odin's death up until now, it's amazing that he hadn't broken down. Somehow he had been able to put the company before himself, before all of us. Did we really mean that little to him? Some part of me still refused to believe that.

"Forgive me Felix, for everything."

_Oh come now Jeb, you're going to have to do better then that._

Locke cackled in our minds and Jeb's eyes opened as wide as mine; Hades looked at us rather curiously, obviously unaware of what we were hearing.

_Do you honestly think that a simple apology will be enough to repay the debt you've inherited?_

Jeb's hands balled into fists, the anger in him creeping its way out subconsciously. I was amazed that emotion was even finding its way out, after all he had been keeping it in so well that it even confused me.

_If you continue to rob him of what is rightfully his_, _then I see no point in my being here. _

I'll never forget the look on Jeb's face. A sick combination of confusion and fear that could shake even the strongest of constitutions. _  
_

There was a deep bang that reverberated through the walls of the School_, _by the time Jeb was out of his chair, me and Hades were outside of the room and on our way to the holding unit. The inside of the School had become shear chaos again. Red lights flashed and klaxons blared signaling the escape of the most deranged madman on the planet. Scientists scurried down the halls like rats trying to escape a flood and hallways became sealed off, feeble attempts to contain a man who knew the exact layout of the School nothing was unknown to him.

Me and Hades made a mad dash through the security doors until we came to the body of a scientist, he had tears on his chest and his throat had been slit, a trail of bloody claw marks lined the hall leading the way to the monstrosity. I could see the shadow of fear in Hades' eyes, the memory of Locke's last escape still fresh in his mind. He clutched his chest as though the wound wasn't fully healed. My mind couldn't help but be thrown back to that night so long ago.

"Stay here and look for survivors, I'll find Locke." Hades nodded in acquiescence. This was my fight, and he knew it. I bolted down the hall, not willing to let Locke loose for another moment. The madman belonged in his cell, and nowhere else. I followed the trail of blood to the garage, the door was open and the warm air drafted in. The sun hung over the horizon and I found myself staring off into the distance. Locke emerged from behind one of the black vans, his arms were crossed behind his back and an arrogant smile slithered across his face. His presence drained the room of light.

"Oh good you came, I didn't want to leave this time without saying goodbye."

"This isn't the end Locke, you can drop the formalities." My hands morphed into paws. Locke stared back at me, the smile didn't vanish. "You're going back in your cell where you belong." He began to laugh as if he had won a long fought battle.

"Never." Cold simple defiance. "I've been waiting too long. If the fates wont start the dominoes, then I will." He started walking towards me, I could feel a dark malice emanating from him, a threat that never existed when he was in chains. His terrible majesty was free, and I was subject to it. "I wont stop until you see what you truly are, when you have realized your potential, unfortunately this place prevents you from doing that."

"For once in your life say something that makes sense!" He stopped in front of me, I was petrified out of terror and confusion. He tilted his head to one side, the light reflecting off of my eyes was absorbed by his. He blinked slowly and shook his head, as if he wanted to be disappointed but he couldn't be. I felt as though a whole conversation was being had between the two of us and yet I was deaf to it. But then again, ninety percent of all communication is non-verbal. "Why wont you just leave me alone!" I was finally able to break the spell of silence.

"Because. You still haven't figured it all out. Don't worry, I'll see you again soon." He smiled and swung at my head._  
_

When I came to only minutes later Locke was gone, the sunlight filtered through a cloud of dust. I laid there on the floor feeling weak and powerless, unable to stop what I perceived as pure evil. Nothing was going my way and I was beginning to believe that nothing ever would. Hades ran up beside me and crouched down, worried that I was wounded. I felt wounded but nothing was wrong with me, nothing that could be healed physically.

Later that day after the situation returned to normal, Jeb called me into the conference room. The same stacks of files were still on the table, one of them had been knocked over in the chaos. Jeb's head was in his hands and he looked as though he was at the breaking point. His hair was a mess as though he had been running his hands through it a lot. I sat in the chair on the opposite end of the table, Jeb let out heavy sigh.

"We can't let him out you know that." Jeb muttered between his hands. "There's too much at stake." He let out another sigh. "You're going to have to go get him." I raised one of my eyebrows in reference to what had happened just earlier today. "This mission is unofficial, therefore, you are allowed to use any means necessary to apprehend him dead or alive." Dead or alive, it would be a miracle if I was able to kill him, let alone bring him back to the School alive. Jeb kept looking at me as though he was waiting for me to say something, or do something. All I could do was sit in the chair failing to take it all in. Everything was happening so fast and it seemed as though the universe itself was conspiring against me. Everything that I had ever held dear had been taken away from me, the pack was dissolved, and now Locke had broken out of the School for real. There didn't seem to be any peace for me anywhere, nothing made sense anymore. I finally looked Jeb in the eyes, the same feeling of guilt continued to burn inside him.

"I'll notify you when I catch him." I spun around in the chair, got up and left the room. I didn't look back, there was nothing left for me here. Nothing but painful memories and the ghosts of my past that haunted me ceaselessly. I made my way to my room and packed my lone suitcase with everything I could even possibly need. By chance my eyes passed over the picture of me, Phoenix and Odin. A sharp stab of pain hit my chest and I could hear Locke's laugh echoing in the deepest places of my mind. He could be anywhere and I was all alone, no help this time around. I couldn't bring myself to even say goodbye to Hades, this was a fight for me and me alone.

Considering that me and Jeb were the only one's that knew about this mission there wasn't going to be a ride for me this time, and no specific destination. I shot a glance at the covered shape of Odin's motorcycle. I almost smiled at the memories of when my and Phoenix would steal it and take it for a ride. I set the case down and walked over to it, I undid the few knots that held the covering down. I threw aside the twine and covers, the paint was as clear as the last time I rode it, the tank was still full and the keys were still on the rack hanging just to the left. Some part of me that I thought had died out a long time ago, the mischievous part, made me smile against an overwhelming majority of pain. I snatched the keys off the rack, no body was going to miss the motorcycle anyway.

* * *

Wow... So much in such a little space. Locke's lose! Lock your doors and close your windows! Even I don't feel safe... Again sorry that it's been so long, but it was out of my control. Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.

P.S. MERRY CHRISTMAS!


	28. Chapter 28

Well I felt as though there wasn't enough of a confrontation in the last chapter with Locke so I made a special little something for this chapter. Oh, and as a bonus we get the return of one of the most hated characters in all of the Maximum Ride series... Well sorta', if you catch my drift. *locks self in room for safety*

I own nothing!

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Chapter 28: Agent of Chaos

I had been on the road for what felt like a month but in actuality had only been about a week. Needless to say that a lone person in a suit on a motorcycle wasn't the best way to travel incognito. Even more needless to say was that it wasn't easy tracking a madman across a country when you had no idea where exactly he was or where he was going. All I had to go on were the cryptically ominous and taunting messages that he would send into my mind and the scent of rot and blood.

The sun beat mercilessly down on me, and a fading cloud of dust marked where I had already been. I was propped up against the tree, finally allowing myself to stop searching for just a moments rest. At the rate I was going everything seemed utterly hopeless; I was lost and alone, at the whim of a deranged psychopath who haunted my every step and yet could not be found. His shadow moved behind every rock and tree, at times I felt as though he was the one tracking me. A ghostly omnipresent being that was nowhere and everywhere at once. I closed my eyes wanting to fade away into the darkness, and sadly I only slipped into a dream.

_I was standing in a white room wearing all white; Locke stood in front of me wearing his tattered suit, broken chains hung from his wrists. His book was on the floor and opened up to the first page, the pages were aged and turning yellow and the letters were blood red_. _He stood there looking down at his book, confused, as if he had forgotten what he had written and had only recently rediscovered his twisted views on life. His hands clenched and unclenched, one hand became a paw while only the fingers on the other changed. A sick failure compared to the rest of the breed. _

_"I'm no failure, as a matter of fact, I'm the only one that can truly be called a success." He didn't look up at me, he licked his lips. "After all, I'm the only one who can see the bigger picture." He paused and looked up at me through his matted greasy hair, the outline of a smile slither up the sides of his face. "So far." He stepped over his book and walked towards me, stopping only about ten feet away. His foot prints left blotted shadows on the floor, the contrast was almost blinding, like staring at a sunspot. "Let me ask you something Felix." He spun around, the book closed hovered in the air and flew into his hands. "What do you think is the reason why you're chasing me?" He tilted his head to the side as if I had asked him the question. _

_"Because you're a madman who doesn't deserve his lease on life." If it was possible, half of his face was smiling and the other was frowning._

_"Think harder." His voice came out deep and raspy. He took a step forward, closing the distance between us uncomfortably._

_"Because you're a sick and twisted menace to everything that breaths." He seemed to grow larger and the room seemed to grow darker._

_"Think harder." He took another step forward, putting the book in a pocket inside his jacket._

_"Because you haunt my every step." My emotions began running and my heart racing._

_"Think harder." Another malevolent step. I spark of fear lit the abyss inside me for a mere moment and then was snuffed out. To my dismay he seemed to sense it. _

_"Because-"_

_"Think harder!" He interrupted me, taking another heavy step. He was right in front of me, staring down, looming over me as if I was underneath the shadow of some behemoth monstrosity. "Think faster!" He was yelling at me._

_"Because you-" He threw an arm around my neck putting me in a head lock with one arm and holding my feet down with one of his. His free hand disappeared into a pocket and reappeared with a loaded pistol. The click of a prime rang in my ears.  
_

_"THINK HARDER! Come on, I know you can! You did it once before!" For one moment in my life I admitted to myself that I was afraid. He continued screaming at me, shaking me side to side as if he was having a conscious and voluntary seizure. "Think harder!" He stomped on my feet and pressed the barrel of the gun into the side of my head. He tightened his grip on my neck, slipping his arm into a suffocation hold. "You know they say some people work best under pressure. I wonder if you're one of those people. But I suppose we'll soon find out, after all, people show you who they really are in their final moments. So that raises the question... Are you a coward?" He inhaled heavily and chuckled. "I can smell your fear." I was finally able to choke out a few words._

_"Because I want to know if I am meant for something more." His grip waned for only a fraction of a second._

_"Good." He sounded disturbingly pleased._

_"Why's that?"_

_"Because, your life isn't the one in my hands." I blinked, and when my eyes opened I was standing ten feet away from Locke, and there clutched in his arm with a gun pressed to her head was Phoenix. I blinked again out of an incredulous shock, gasping slightly out of what I called a need for air. Her grove green eyes were choked with tears. I could hardly believe that she was there alive, but she couldn't be, she was dead.  
_

_"Felix!" She managed to get out a cry before Locke silenced her with a squeeze of his arm. _

_"Let her go Locke!" I almost charged him, but my eyes kept bouncing between Phoenix and the gun pressed to her head. My hands balled into fists and I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins.  
_

_"Why should I? After all, you're the one who determines if she lives or not. Make the wrong move or give the wrong answer and my finger might just slip." His yellow fangs split his smile in two. Phoenix struggled to get out of his grasp, he stomped on her feet. "You'll play along my dear." He pointed the gun at me. "Or my arm might have an involuntary muscle spasm. Understood? Good." He placed the gun back on her head and shot me a devilish look. "Understood?" I didn't respond, he began to laugh. The shadow underneath him grew, pooling at his feet like blood, and expanding at an increasingly fast rate. It only stopped after the whole room was consumed in darkness, the only shred of light came from my suit. _

_"Let her go." I muttered with a clenched jaw. _

_"Answer the question and I let her go, it's as simple as that." I looked at Phoenix again praying to find that grove that I had been robbed of what seemed like an eternity ago. "Now be a good boy and tell me, what do you think is the reason why you're chasing me?" I didn't want to answer, I wanted him do disappear, vanish from the face of existence. He was the bane of my existence, a living manifestation of the demon inside of me. We all have one, unfortunately my relationship with mine was far less then ideal, mine was trying to kill me and the love of my life. _

_"Because Locke, I want to see your head on a platter and I wont stop until I hear your dying breath."An uneasy silence fell upon all of us. Locke simply looked back at tantalizingly. _

_"Sorry, wrong answer." The shadows around my feet crept up my legs, binding me to the floor. The flowed unhindered up my body, my neck, and onto my face. Into my mouth and across my eyes but leaving my ears uncovered. I could hear Phoenix struggle as if she was in my situation, but I was paralyzed, numb to the bone. I was bound, a prisoner of the shadows, unable to help her once again. That feeling of hopelessness, the sheer knowledge of how powerless you are, how insignificant you really are, how that if I was to die at that moment no soul would mourn my passing.  
_

_"Felix!" I heard her scream out in an eerily familiar tone. One lone bang sounded throughout the darkness, one shriek, one unholy laugh, and a scream so inconceivable painful that I find it hard to comprehend that it came from me._

My eyes snapped open letting the bright day of light flood into me, drowning the darkness. I was freezing cold despite the warmth in the air. My breathing was heavy and labored as if I had just finished a ten kilometer run. My eyes scanned my surroundings, I was slumped down at the base of the tree I was propped up against, the motorcycle was still there and so was my suitcase. I let lose a deep sigh and ran my fingers through my hair. I could still hear the echo of the gunshot echo off of the mountains in the distance. Phoenix. Of all the things that Locke could torture me with it had to be her, the thing that hurt the most, even when I was numb.

A shadow moved in the corner of my eye. I was on my feet and ready to land a blow but my memory forced me to stop mid-rush. Propped up against a tree was Dylan. His arms were crossed across his chest and his head was held slightly low.

"A nightmare fitted for you alone, how sad." He raised his head and gave me a surprisingly calm look. I walked back over to the tree and sat down where I had fallen asleep.

"How did you find me?" I didn't anticipate seeing him anytime soon, considering that the last time I saw him was in Paris.

"How can I not see a friend in need?" He grinned slightly at my confusion. An unexpected gesture, and an unforeseen arrival. "Isaac's been wondering about you. He heard about what happened to Phoenix and Odin. I don't know how well they'll be received but he sends his best wishes to you." He smirked at what I assumed was the notion of wishing. I chuckled at the gesture, those two really were two of a kind. "He also told me that Locke's escaped, I'm assuming that you're out for his head." He looked up at the sky and stared at a cloud. "Isaac wants you to visit him at the Institute if you can. Dr. Gunther-Hagan wants to see you too." I didn't respond and he glanced at me as though something was wrong.

"That's the most I've ever heard you say, I'm amazed." I said sarcastically. We shared a a short genuine chuckle, and all the while Dylan never took his eyes off that cloud. I put my hands in my pockets and closed my eyes. "It's been too long, how have you been?" I opened one eye so I could see his reaction.

"I've been fine, life's uneventful, but from what I hear, your life has been rather chaotic over the past few months." I could see one of his eyebrows rise. "It seems as though death is your shadow." That was an understatement, one that could never be used as a hyperbole. "That's a curse that I wouldn't wish on any soul." He grew silent as if he was choosing what he was going to say next. "Forgive me, I overstepped."

"Don't be, you're right." He was, and I didn't deserve his forgiveness. After all, it was the cold bitter truth. He was still staring at that cloud as if he was looking beyond it, or he was in deep meditative thought. I remembered when I first met him and Isaac, Isaac had told me that he was the kind who sought answers through deep thought and self discovery, attempting to unravel the enigma that was the mind. I wondered how far Locke went before he drove himself insane. I sighed slightly, the search was hopeless, and if I kept it up I would be as insane as Locke by the time i found him. "Alright, I'll go to the Institute." He smirked, satisfied with my answer.

"Good, I'll phone my chauffeur and have him come pick us up." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone that looked brand new. I couldn't believe that I was abandoning a hunt for a trip to the Institute, then again, I wasn't going to be there on a regular mission. It had been awhile since I had been there though, a little over a year actually, by now they would have a whole new set of experiments in containment and a few new staff members. Not to mention that it was in New York City, this would most certainly be interesting.

_Oh don't think that you can get away so easily, trust me, in time you'll be unable to resist my call.

* * *

_Well there you have it, Felix is going to the Institute, and we have a reunion with not only Dylan, but Isaac as well. My oh my, it has been a while since we've seen them. We'll get to see more of them in the near future, so expect some good old Shakespeare and semi-cryptic/riddle like dialogue. I didn't think I'd get this chapter out before the twenty-fifth so think of this chapter as my Christmas present to all of my readers. Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.

P.S. Once again, Happy Holidays to you all!


	29. Chapter 29

Well in this chapter we get to take a trip to the Institute to see Isaac. Of course I'm sure this only means more questions will be asked then answered. But that's all part of the fun now isn't it?

I own nothing!

* * *

Chapter 29: Another Piece, Another Riddle

Mine and Dylan's trip to New York was rather uneventful, full of witty remarks about what had recently happened and the occasional lengthy silence as Dylan would periodically stare off into space. More time given to the search for knowledge, perfection, and peace. I began to notice how much more open Dylan had become over the past few months, it almost took me by surprise every time he would strike up another conversation. eventually I told him the grim tale of the mission to Siberia, down to every detail I could remember. The look in the experiment's eyes, the look on everyone's faces, the bitter cold that could permeate any room and gnaw away at the soul. I also told him about mine and Alex's mission to Seattle, what I had learned about Chu, about Alister and his mysterious employer, it dug up a treasure trove of memories and sensations I thought I had lost the ability to recall.

It wasn't long before we actually reached New York, it was about eight and the star filled sky was blocked out by the bright glow of the high rises that surrounded us. Phoenix always said that she had wanted to go to New York, to see the sky scrapers, the Statue of Liberty, to be a tourist for once in her life; she never got the chance. It seemed so long ago when I had been called to work on the security force at the Institute, the only thing that had changed since then were the names on posters and signs. The Institute was absolute and unchanging, a testament of time in a city that never slept.

The limo pulled into the garage followed by a black van containing Odin's motorcycle. Dylan got out first and headed for the door with his hands in his pockets, I got out and scanned the blank walls of the garage as if I was looking for a change that I would never find. Dylan waited for at the door and put his hand on the handle.

"Come on, let me give you the grand tour." He said almost sarcastically.

It was a side of the Institute that I had never seen before. I had always been in the research department or the holding units, never in the actual living quarters or in the data banks. It was lavish, no expense was paid, almost like the hotel in Paris. I shot a silent glance at Dylan, he seemed rather unreceptive of the luxury that encased us. Instead he continued walking through room after room, hallway after hallway, as if he was unaware that I may linger and lose track of him. Eventually we came to a door with a brass plate on it; it was labeled 'Library'.

The walls were lined with bookcases crammed with tomes of endless knowledge. Files on staff and company history, reports on on every one of the countless experiments ever conducted, disks on the eternal hours of research, and the failure, the never ending supply of failures. It was as if I had found the very records of heaven, nothing could be hidden from one who could spend even an hour in this room. I was dumbfounded that I had never been here before or that I had never heard of it. Dylan chuckled at the expression on my face.

"They try to keep it on a need to know basis, everything in here is classified, even though everything was written by a staff member at one point in time." His eyes trailed off into the depths of the room, the size of the room was astounding, as never ending as a hall of mirrors. The floors was covered in a densely detailed carpet and the room was lit with numerous elaborate chandeliers, the air felt warm and seemed to glow faintly. Dylan began walking along the bookcases to our left. "I'm sure he's in here somewhere." He trailed off into thought, running his fingers over the spines of the various books on genetics. The faint melodies of a piano grew increasingly louder as we went farther into the Library. Dylan stopped in front of a door, glancing back to see if I was following. When he opened it the room was flooded with a white light, and the hypnotic melodies seemed to call us in.

Isaac was sitting at a piano in the middle of the room, his eyes were closed and his fingers glided over the keys. He was like one of the great composers of the past only reincarnated. There was simply no end to his character, it had been a long time since I last saw him, and yet he looked so much more mature, like his soul had aged a lifetime and he didn't. It didn't take long for me to get swept up in the melody, music always had that effect on me, bringing up all kinds of mental images, pleasant, horrific, memories of loss, love and life. every image that had been burned into my mind flashed before my eyes, like I was in the gallery of my subconscious. Isaac seemed to catch on even though his eyes were closed and the melody picked up, turning from light and reflective to dark and foreboding. The room matched the tone and one by one the lights went out. Shadows danced in the darkness, red eyes glistened like rubies, and growls echoed off the walls. The only light that remained was above Isaac, a spotlight surrounded by an abyss. He slowed down, the shadows stopped, and the lights began to fade back into existence. He stopped and the last note hung in the air.

"It's a piece by Nobuo Uemastu, Melodies of Life has always been a favorite of mine." He was staring at the keys, only glancing up at me at the end of his sentence. "I didn't think you would actually come, after what just happened." His tone was blank, he was containing whatever he truly felt. He slid off the bench and paced towards me. "But now that you're here I might as well fill you in on everything." He put a hand on Dylan's shoulder as he walked by us and he slipped back into the Library. We followed him and sat down at three separate couches surrounding a large table. Isaac leaned back and propped his feet on the table, Dylan sat down and folded his arms; I sat down leaning with an elbow on one of the armrests.

"So how long have you been here?" I said glancing at Dylan who bounced the glance off to Isaac.

"About a month, of course I got everything that happened second handed from the reports. My apology is of no value, but I'm sorry about Phoenix, I always thought you two looked so nice together." Part of that comment stung like ice. "Of course Locke's escape didn't go unnoticed either, and from the looks of it, the wolf had eluded your grasp up to this point. Tragic." His eyes never met mine, I kept trying to read him, but to no avail; it was just like before in Paris. He began to chuckle as his eyes halted on a book hidden among the shelves. "She should have died hereafter; there would have been a time for such a word. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty place from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time, and all of our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

"Macbeth? Is there a work of Shakespeare that you haven't read?" Dylan asked, his eyes shining through his dark blond hair. We all knew the answer, I doubted there was a book in existence that Isaac hadn't read. Isaac smirked at the sarcasm, shaking head head slightly.

"I suppose that it was fitting for the situation at hand, although I must say I underestimated how morbid it would come across." He paused, thinking intently about what he was going to say next. "I would ask how he broke out, but I'm sure after being there that long he knew everything. Father says that they should have erased him when they had the chance all those years ago, unforeseen consequences make life all the more interesting don't you think?" He was grinning, but he was trying to hide it with a hand. Dylan had started to stare off into space again, but an eyebrow rose at Isaac's last comment.

"They're a sign of poor planning or poor execution." He muttered in rebuttal.

"If they had taken that long he would have expired all on his own? Oh the mortal bond, how you drive us to take risks." Isaac retorted closing his eyes. He opened one of them and looked at me. "At a loss for words?" He didn't try hiding the grin this time. "Or are you simply having a long awaited epiphany?"

"Well it isn't the latter, and now it isn't the former. Although, the latter would be nice."

"Wouldn't it be?" Dylan said, finally coming back form his trance. "I believe that the three of us could each use one." Isaac's grin vanished before my eyes and he shot Dylan a rather displeased look. "That is along the lines of what you said to Alister before you sent him on his way, isn't it?" Alister? my eyes snapped open and the two of them took notice.

"Alister Lynch, so you're the poor soul they sent to guard Chu, I'm sorry for the inconvenience." I didn't respond. "I was the one who gave him the mission to take Chu out of the equation."

"Against the advice I gave you so many times before." Dylan added. Isaac shot him a look that ordered silence.

"He's been a thorn in my side for too long, and if I let him continue to move across the board, there's no telling how much interference he could cause. How much damage he could do to the company and it's projects." Another piece to the puzzle, a rather large one. Isaac was the mysterious employer, the one who hired Alister and his men in the first place. He's the one that wants Chu gone. Chu was a threat because of his line of work in chemical manufacturing and nuclear power, he was a benefactor for the recombinant DNA project and was trying to get some of the experiments for his own purposes. Isaac was simply eliminating what he saw as a threat. But it all came with unforeseen consequences.

"Why is Chu such a threat? Isn't he just another man out for his own piece of sadistic pie?"

"At first glance yes, but he wants to have Itex manufacture the seventy-seventh generation like weapons and use them to take over the world no less. I will not allow us to be mass produced, rapid genetic engineering is only a lethal step back from progress, and progress cannot be halted." How true that statement hauntingly was, I was part of the seventeenth generation, actually the first of the seventeenth. I found it hard to believe that among all of those other generations only now, at the seventy-seventh, had they seen the light of day. Of course being the first successful batch in a while, it made sense that they would be put to some sort of use. After all, the breed was. But to be used as weapons? Something wasn't adding up, and the skin on the back of my neck crawled at the thought an army of avians.

"Of course, the two of us, being the only free avians haven't thought the best of this little endeavor. I wonder what are rogue variable has to think about this." Dylan said, reminding me of what I despised, Locke. He was free to do whatever, and for all I knew, he could be plotting to take over the company for revenge, or the world for that matter. Some part of me refused to believe that, it wasn't like him to do that.

_Think harder. I know you can. _

Even though the trail was cold he could still find me. I wasn't safe anywhere, not from this. I would have shouted towards the heavens, burst out in rage and probably rip apart the first stationary object my paws could find. I would have, but The Chairman came in the room and shattered the silence by slamming the door behind him. He smiled at the three of us, the shield of calmness in his eyes were hiding a blaze of fury just below the surface.

"Son, Dylan." He paused when he looked at me. "I haven't seen you since the company meeting in Paris, I assume that you're here on assignment." I simply nodded back. "Good to here, I must say though, quite a shame what happened to Alpha pack, they were such a promising bunch." The sincerity in his voice, if there was any, was spread very thinly. My hands balled into fists and I blinked slowly. So it was true, they really didn't care.

_Another illusion rent. Maybe now you'll be able to see clearly. _

The air grew awkwardly still, I didn't respond and yet The Chairman expected me to. It grew into a staring contest, like the ones me and Alex would get into, a battle of wills. The tension was thick enough that it became tangible.

"Father, didn't you say that you had a meeting with Dr. Gunther-Hagan today. You wouldn't want to keep the good doctor waiting, I'm sure he's as busy a man as you." The Chairman blinked at Isaac's statement, the battle was over, a stalemate at best. I shot a glance back at Isaac and Dylan. Isaac looked as though a great scheme was unfolding, and and Dylan sat there shaking his head. The Chairman looked at the grandfather clock wedged between two book cases and frowned.

"I'll leave you to your business." He let out a quick sigh and spun around, when the door closed behind him it slammed shut. Isaac let out a sigh as if a burden had been lifted off of his shoulders. He grinned weakly. I shook my head, mimicking Dylan. These two could get away with anything, why couldn't I? Dylan's eyes snapped open as if he had received the epiphany that we had been anticipating.

"The doctor said that he wasn't arriving until tomorrow." Isaac's smile grew devilishly.

_

* * *

_Yay! Isaac and Dylan, this can only get better. Right? Let's hope, because events are being set into motion that cannot be undone. Felix still has to talk with Dr. HGH, and Locke's still on the lose. Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time. _  
_


	30. Chapter 30

Life at the Institute certainly has its perks, after all, you're sitting in the central hub of the data banks. You never know exactly what you might find hidden deep in the archives... Or the mind for that matter.

I own nothing!

* * *

Chapter 30: The Doctor is In

It wasn't long after our visit from The Chairman that Isaac and Dylan retired for the night. I aimlessly drifted through the labyrinth of halls that constructed the Institute, eventually finding my way to the living quarters. They were more simple then the ones at the School, not meant to be used all the time, more like a hotel room without all of the luxuries. The door clicked shut behind me, the only light in the room was from the lamp that someone had neglected to turn off. My lone suitcase was on the bed, the only speck of color in the whole room aside from the yellow glow from the lamp.

I threw myself on the bed and forced my eyes to shut. The bed was surprisingly soft, almost as if it wasn't even there, like I was flying. Or was I falling? It all felt so familiar and yet so far away, like a memory made of shattered glass. My body felt so tense up against the bed, like I was made entirely out of densely coiled springs, I let out a sigh, shoving my cares away. At times I wish that I couldn't think, let my self slip into the bliss that is ignorance. Knowledge is both a blessing and a curse, and now it seemed to be only a curse. It could bring about a revolution, of ideas, technology, or a blood filled coup. It could build marvels that defied the human capability, or it could destroy hundreds of thousands in a flash of light. It could drive a man over the edge and into the abyss of insanity, or into the light of genius. Mad genius perhaps.

Agonizingly slow my body became less and less tense. One of my hands was draped over the side of the bed, my thumb twitched involuntarily because of my pulse. The faint ring of the grandfather clock in the Library echoed through the air ducts, tolling the hours of the night for those brave enough to venture into the darkness. The echo faded into white noise, the only sound was my heartbeat, a deep pounding in my chest that meant I was still alive. Physically maybe, but my soul was dead. It seemed every time someone I knew died part of my soul went with them to keep their memory alive. Why? Because no one else would, because the people pulling the strings were heartless, soulless. It wouldn't be long before I was one of them. A puppet master lurking in the shadows, weaving a calamity for the world stage.

My mind was sore with confusion, a tsunami of hunches, guesses, assumptions and inferences. None of it made any sense, and every time I tried to solve it, it only grew more complex. Every piece of the puzzle I found only made the work as a whole even larger. I felt daunted to say the least, a gnawing fear of failure hid in my shadow, pressing me on like the crack of a whip. I wondered if would I become consumed by this masterpiece, another soul lost in the pages of the Library. The truth seemed like the only goal I had, about everything. About the avians, and Locke and Jeb, about me.

I inhaled deeply and chill clawed its way up my spine. My blood ran cold in my veins, my heartbeat slowed and the veil of stillness fell over me. It was going to be a long day tomorrow, I needed my rest.

I woke up the next morning feeling as though I hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. Unwillingly I got out of bed and put on a new suit. It was odd, but I had never taken the time to actually look at my face, all of the minute features that made me who I was. Unique, just like everyone else. From my dark red eyes to the scars that were constant reminders of my past failures. Back before I had learned everything the hard way. I straightened my tie and cleared my throat, today the doctor was arriving, and needless to say I was anxious for what he wanted to talk to me about. He might be the only person who could actually give me the truth at face value, and I wasn't going to let this opportunity slip through my fingers.

The lights in the hallways turned on one by one as I walked under them, and the whole building seemed to spring to life at my presence. I could hear the faint humming of computers through the walls, and the occasional message over the intercom would shatter the silence. I made my way to the Library, passing by a pair of scientists debating over how an experiment would react to electroshock stimulation. When I arrived at the Library I was almost hesitant to open it, and as I reached out to the knob the door opened from the inside. Isaac looked rather puzzled for a fraction of a second before his devilish smile materialized on his face.

"I was just about to come and get you." He spun around and sat back down on one of the couches. "If I had known that I could have finished my conversation with Dylan." I raised an eyebrow at the lack of his presence. "He's waiting for the good doctor to arrive. He has every right too, after all, the doctor is the only father figure he's ever had." Isaac propped his head on his fist and looked at one of the bookcases. "Of course with the doctor gone most of time he stays with me." A serious look came over his face as if he was analyzing his own life. It looked as though it was a curse for the children of Itex officials that they would never really know their parents. I found it hard to understand, I had none, no one to miss, no one to look up too. I had to create who I was out of thin air.

I couldn't help but remember what it was like when I woke up for the first time, the absolute of the unknown around me was terrifying and enticing all at once. I could still remember the feeling of the table underneath me, my legs and wrists struggling against the straps, Jeb looking down at me with a smile that had never been replicated since. It was hard for me to call Jeb a father figure considering how little I actually saw him, after I woke up I was carted around from scientist to scientist, although Jeb was the only familiar face. Everyday he would be the first and last person I would see, and as I got older and the packs were constructed, I would see less and less of him.

"Adversity brings out the best and the worst in us, it shows you who you truly are." He continued to look at the bookcases.

"The problem is that people aren't always satisfied with what they really are." How painfully true. His silver eyes shot me a look at his witty rebuttal, wondering if I was going to respond. I would have, but the door opened and Dylan came in followed by Dr. Gunther-Hagan. I hadn't seen the doctor since Paris, and I'd never met him up close before, I didn't quite know what to expect. Dylan motioned for towards the empty couch and waited until the doctor sat down to take his place next to him. Isaac sat motionless, waiting for whatever would happen next. The doctor just sat there for a moment or two, scanning me with his eyes. He smiled calmly, and for some reason it made me uneasy.

"You must be Jeb's boy." Something about the way he said it made the hairs on my neck stand on end. "Glad to see that the first fruits of the seventeenth are still active. I'd thought that the expiration date would have ended your days sooner." Isaac shot me a look, waiting for my response.

"Thankfully being the first fruits, we were given time to mature at a proper rate. Unlike the inferior dullards that followed us, we don't have a set time." The doctor smirked at my callously toned rebuttal.

"Nice to hear." He paused. "It's good to see that there haven't been any repeats of past mistakes." The room went as silent as a graveyard; it didn't need to be said, but somehow we all knew he was talking about Locke. The doctor gave me a look a look that only confirmed my worst fears. He wanted to see me about Locke. "The man was a genius. Insane, but a genius nonetheless. If it wasn't from him none of us would be here, and odds are, you wouldn't exist. Funny how that works out. Madness bred progress beyond its years and was perceived as witchcraft. They through the inventor into the stocks to be made a fool of, and now he has broken free to show the world that he was right. We at at his mercy, his unholy judgment, unless..." He looked me in the eyes, as if I literally was the only hope they had of catching Locke. "Unless the wolf can track him down first."

It was the sick future that we all feared, at yet, destiny saw fit to make me the poor soul that had to hunt and destroy him. I was split by absolutes, the need to find Locke and put an end to him, and a need to find the truth and the only person who ever gave it to me was that demonic scientist. It was like a great tragedy, and no matter how I looked at it, the end of it all seemed grim. The doctor cleared his throat.

"I don't intend for you to go at this alone, one man isn't enough to take him down, not that I'm underestimating your abilities, but it would make me feel better if you had some help." The doctors comment came as a surprise to the rest of us, although Dylan tried to hide it. Isaac's eyes darted back and forth between me, Dylan, and the doctor. It was unexpected, and none of us knew what would happen.

"I'll go." Dylan finally muttered under his breath, the doctor began to smile. Isaac's eyes focused on Dylan in incredulity.

"No Dylan, I'll go." It was a plea, although it didn't come out that way.

"No Isaac, your father would never approve. Besides, this would be a good opportunity for him to get some field experience." The doctor continued to smile and Isaac crossed his arms and hung his head in defeat. Dylan hung his head submissively, clearly he was only doing this because the doctor wanted him to. I couldn't blame him, what rational person would search from an insane man?

"When will we be leaving?" Dylan asked with his head still down.

"As soon as you're ready to go I suppose." I couldn't help but feel sorry for him and Isaac, it wasn't their fight, it was mine.

"Well then it's settled." The doctor got up from his seat and started for the door. "You two will hunt down Locke." He opened the door and looked back at the three of us. "Good luck." The door clicked before any of us made a move. Amazingly Isaac sighed and rolled his eyes as if this wasn't anything new.

"He is a scientist after all." He shot a quick look at Dylan. "Time halts for no man." Dylan just shook his head and smirked weakly, raising his head to look at me.

"Is it safe to assume that you have no idea where he could be?" I shook my head and his fell back down. "You're not making this easy you know." He said sarcastically. "But I guess you could consider yourself lucky that we can find him with relative ease." Naturally that piqued my curiosity and Isaac grinned at my raised eyebrow. "I should be able to see where our psychopath is without any problems." Of course, avians were more then meets the eye, along with wings they had a multitude of powers. Side effects of the mutation process, the same thing that made Locke mad and a mind reader. Dylan began staring off into space as if he wasn't even looking at the wall, but as if he was looking beyond it. Isaac sat on the couch amused at his power and my curiosity. Dylan blinked a few times and mentally returned to the room. Now I knew what was happening every time he was staring off into space. He smiled as if he just remembered a sick joke. "He's going to the Academy."

"The Academy?" I'd never heard of the Academy before which didn't make much sense considering that I had been to every Itex facility at least once. Isaac chuckled wickedly.

"The Academy you say? I'm surprised I didn't think of that myself." His smile faded almost instantly after that. "Be careful, I expect the two of you to come back in one piece." My question went unanswered as Dylan got up and headed for the door. I shot a look at Isaac, he was still sitting there with his arms crossed. I would never understand him no matter how hard I tried, or Dylan either; those two were in a class all their own.

"Felix." Dylan said as he made his way to the door. "We don't have a moment to spare."

* * *

Well, this will be interesting. Locke's going to be at the Academy. Oh this will most certainly be interesting, and to top it off we have Dylan tagging along. I promise that you wont want to miss the next chapter, I've been waiting for so long to write it. *smiles demonically*

Sorry for the lack of updates, but as you are all terribly aware of, school started up again and ironically I'm reading Hamlet in English, so I'm hammered with mountains of homework. But I'll squeeze in every second I can get. Many thanks to all of my readers and reviewers for sticking with me this far. Please continue to do what you do best. ;) TBC, so all in due time.


	31. Chapter 31

OK, this has been in the making for quite some time, and I'll admit it, the journey to the Academy is a little hasty, but it's well worth it. It's the moment we've all been waiting for, the final confrontation with Locke, an epic battle for the ages, and who knows what we might learn on our little adventure? Enjoy. ;)

I own nothing!

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Chapter 31: The End of the Beginning

Dylan was adamant about leaving right then and there, as if we literally didn't have a moment to spare. Isaac bid us a hasty farewell and escorted us back to the garage. After minor persuasion, Isaac got the chauffeur to drive me and Dylan to the airport. He said that there would be someone there to take us to the Academy. I could only imagine how he would arrange that, anonymous acquaintances and unspoken favors, the list could go on and on. Dylan didn't pack a single thing and the rush of it all I forgot my suitcase at the Institute, of course when this came to our attention we were past the point of no return; in fact we were on the plane by then. The plane was bound for Portland of all places, but Dylan informed me that we were actually headed for Forks. It disturbed me somehow, that there was a facility that I had never even heard of. Dylan told me that it wasn't used for much anymore, mostly for minor experiments and data storage.

After we arrived at the terminal there was a man waiting for us with three bodyguards standing as incognito as they could only twenty feet away. It amazed me to no end that they could remain that way in a terminal of all places. Each of them scanned both me and Dylan with analytical blank eyes, one of them gave me look as though I was a wolf in sheep's skin, and another did a double take after he realized that I was an Eraser. They kept their distance from me the whole time, afraid that I might lose control of the beast inside of me, like I was a monster that belonged on a leash. It was unsettling to be compared to the nothings that scientists bred in cages, beings with no real life, no purpose.

It took a few hours for the van to reach the outskirts of Forks, by then the sun was already going down, and before long it would be impossible to see through the forest canopy. Dylan and I got out of the van, he told the driver to head back to Portland and notify Isaac that we had arrived with no hassle. After the van was out of sight, Dylan started off into the depths of the forest, and not knowing where to go, I followed not far behind him. The canopy was blocking out all but the smallest scraps of starlight, and if it weren't for Dylan's special eyes and my tracking skills, we might have never found our way through that forest.

Twigs would snap with almost every step we took, and the glowing eyes of owls would appear out of the darkness and vanish in silent flash. At one point Dylan turned around to make sure I wasn't lost in the shadow of the night, his eyes seemed to pierce through the dark like silver blades, cutting the night to shreds. There was no end to him, no absolute potential; slowly it began to dawn on me why they were investing so much time and effort into the avians. Isaac had been right all along, I would have chuckled if it were for the circumstances at hand.

If there was an end to eternity we reached it as we finally arrived at the Academy. The reinforced concrete walls were topped with spools of unwound razor wire and electrical fences. The few windows that I could see were lit with a bright luminescent white light that sent a chill slithering up my spine. The sounds of the night slipped into silence and even my breathing was hushed in its presence. It seemed odd, but strangely enough, it had a front door, the lobby was empty expect for a few potted plants and a lone secretary that sat behind the desk typing away furiously one moment and jotting down something on a note pad the next. She looked up at our unexpected and unannounced arrival, I reached into my pocket and flashed her my identification card and she went back to her typing. Dylan shot me an odd look and motioned for me to lead the way this time.

"I thought you knew where we were going?" I said as I opened the door into the first of many hallways.

"I said that he was going to be here, I never said that I had been here before." He shrugged his shoulders and I closed the door behind him. "I do believe that it's your turn to lead the way." He grinned sarcastically and waited for me to start again. What could be more fun then this? Searching for a madman who could be anywhere in a facility whose layout I knew nothing about. Not knowing exactly what I was in for, I started walking down the endless hall.

The floor had the same checker board style tiling as the School, and the walls were the same tint of medical white. The only noticeable difference was the overwhelming sterile smell that flooded the abandoned halls. Dylan paced behind me and our footsteps echoed down the halls no matter how gingerly I stepped. At one point my heart skipped a beat as a scientist burst through a set of doors pushing a gurney littered with bloody surgical tools and various probes. My curiosity got the best of me and I peered through a porthole on one of the doors. The body had been covered in a white sheet and I could hear the faint ring of a flat line through the mist of white noise.

Dylan tapped my shoulder in a silent plea for us to continue. I could feel that he was on edge, the memories of a youth full of experimentation lay just beyond his eyes. The whole atmosphere had a chill reminiscent of a morgue, and my breath began to form ghostly wisps. Haunting reminders of where I was and what I was here to do. The longer I was there the more familiar the academy became, like a long lost memory, hidden deep down on a level that surpassed suppression. Every corner and hallway, every door and sign, it all seemed to return to my mind out of thin air. I wanted to tell myself that I was aimlessly making my way through the labyrinth of halls, and yet I moved as if I knew where I was going, with every step supported by a shred of unidentifiable confidence.

As I rounded a corner I stopped so suddenly that Dylan's last step seemed to clap with a thunderous force. A feather lay on the floor; as black as the abyss, with a tip of bright sapphire blue, almost like a feather from a bird of paradise. An unholy scream hung in the back of my mind as I crouched down to pick it up. It was soft and light, as if there was nothing substantive to it. It was an avian feather. I could feel Dylan's eyes bearing down on it, incredulous of the existence of another avian. I wish I could say I was surprised, but considering how many times i had been lied to and how little I really knew about the inner workings of Itex, it didn't come off as a surprise. Oddly enough I remembered my encounters with the avians at the school, the little blond one in particular. Would they be like Isaac and Dylan if given the chance, or were they mindless creations made to fill cages? Part of me refused to believe that.

Slowly I rose to my feet and tucked the feather into my pocket, A flash of heat struck me in the head and I almost fell on my knees, I winced at the sharp pain that seemed to tear itself through my head. Dylan started for me, but held an arm out telling him stay stay there. A security camera swiveled to look at me, zooming in to focus on my face; a sick laugh sang in my head. He's here, and now he knows I'm here.

I broke into a mad dash and made a sharp left turn, and there at the end of the hall was a solid white door with an ivory doorknob. The door emanated an unholy ominous feeling, and the doorknob was warm to the touch. It was frightening how familiar it all felt, like I was reliving a past that had never happened. It was beyond deja vu, like a nightmare come true. Somehow Dylan had managed to sneak up on me and place his hand on my shoulder. He didn't need to say it, but we both knew who was waiting for us on the other side of the door. I could hear each of the tumblers turn and click; and as I opened the door we were bathed in a flood of otherworldly light.

The room was entirely white, so seamless in fact that I couldn't tell where the floor ended and the walls began. The light came from nowhere and was so whole that there were no shadows anywhere. The only color or darkness came from us, like stains on a flawless canvas. There was a white table and chair in the center of the room, and sitting in the chair was Locke, flipping through the pages of his book. In contrast to the wall he was like an ink blot, his eyes didn't even reflect any light, it was all absorbed by the black hole of his core. His eyes shot up at us for only a moment before returning to his book.

"It's amazing how easy it is to infiltrate a facility when you know the floor plan and how to bypass every security measure that they've installed." He turned a page. "Of course having control of their memories doesn't hurt either." He pulled out a rusty old pocket watch, opened it, and smirked. "You're late." He closed it with a click. He raised an eyebrow once he saw Dylan.

"It ends here Locke!" My feeble attempt to sound confidant, he smiled back as if he had already won. He closed his book and got up from the table.

"Why my dear delusional son, it hasn't even begun." He let loose a mad cackle and stretched out his arms, taunting me into making a fatal first move. Dylan took a step forward but I blocked him with my arm, he didn't try after that. I stepped forward as calmly as I could, slowly turning into my Eraser form, sinew tensed into muscle and claws were ready to obliterate whatever they touched. Locke rose an eyebrow in anticipation. "I've already made my move, it's your turn now." I rushed at him on all fours, bearing my fangs, he stepped off to the side at the absolute last moment and lifted his left leg in the air then slammed it into my back. I scrambled to my feet and swung aimlessly at him, only managing to rip his suit apart even more.

He blocked a blow with his right arm and swung at my head with his left, knocking me out with a single blow. When I came to, I was on the ground with his foot on my back. He rolled me over with his foot and put his hands in his pockets. "And I expected so much out of you." He stomped down once, twice, and then Dylan bolted at him, making Locke release me so he could dodge.

"You know you could have jumped in at any time." I said as I got to my feet. He smirked, and snapped out his wings, which got Locke's attention for all of about three seconds.

"Just wanted to make sure you had your fun first, but I do believe that it's my turn now." He ran, or should I say flew, at Locke, aiming at his head, of course Locke ducked and grabbed Dylan's foot and pulled him out of the air. Before he could land a blow I was on top of him, tearing away at his right arm. Locke hissed and threw me off of him, the blood lust had already taken hold of him, and with every passing second he became more and more like the Eraser he truly was. He swung at my head, and continued after I had dodged, spinning around and landing a blow to Dylan's sternum, knocking the air out of him. Dylan fell to his knees, and Locke kicked him in the side, cracking a rib or two. I clawed at his back, drawing deep red drops of blood that fell to the floor like drops of mercury.

Locke spun around and slashed at my side, tearing through my skin like paper. He licked my blood off of his claws and sneered a toothy grin, sick satisfaction was written all over his face. He bolted over to the table and grabbed a gun hidden by his book off the table. He began to laugh, slowly walking towards the two of us. Dylan got to his feet and his eyes darted back and forth between me and Locke, I didn't know what to do, Locke had the advantage and I was out of moves.

"You don't know where you are do you? How sad." He shot a paralyzing look at Dylan. "It's as I feared, you really don't remember any of this. Your origins, your home, your life before. It's amazing what a simple bullet can do to a person." He chuckled. "It can end a life, or it could be the start of something much greater." I took a step towards him but he shot me with the same look, it felt like my feet were in cement blocks. "If you really are that resistant to the truth, then I will simply have to open your eyes myself." He began pacing over to Dylan, and for once in my life I could see genuine fear in Dylan's eyes. "The finest that my successors have produced." He scanned Dylan up and down. "It would be funny if it weren't so pathetic."

I lost all control after that last remark, and whatever bound me disintegrated to dust. I ran at Locke but he spun around and put Dylan in a head lock, pointing the gun at his head, and stepped on his feet so he couldn't run. He began laughing, throwing caution to the wind.

"Well this is oddly familiar don't you think?" My dream, or should I say nightmare, he had Phoenix in a head lock instead, and I failed to save her. My nightmares were coming to life, and I was powerless to stop them. "Let's see if you can get it right this time my son. What do you think is the reason why you're chasing me?" I swallowed, my gaze unable to leave Dylan's fear stricken stare. I took one small step forward, trying to make sense out of everything Locke had ever told me. Every cryptic message, every time he tried to convince me about my past or my destiny, every time he told me that I was being lied to. It all wanted to make sense, so what was holding it back?

"Because Locke, I want to know if you were right or not about me." He stopped smiling, and the gun dropped from his hand with a heavy clap. Dylan struggled to get out of Locke's strangle grip on him, but to no avail, and Locke stood there as if he had no idea about what to do next. There was a faint glimmer in the abyss of his eyes and his smile came back. He placed his hands on Dylan's head, and a sickening feeling rushed over me. I knew what was coming.

"Think harder." He mouthed the words to me tortuously slow, and with a sharp snap, Dylan's wings fell limp and the tension in his body vanished. I fell to my knees. Again, time and time again, everyone I knew was dying one by one, and every single time I couldn't do a thing to stop it. I felt so hopeless. Locke walked towards me, a mad triumph displayed on his face. "After all of these years, after everything you've been through, and after countless hints I've given you, you still don't see it do you?" My body began to shake uncontrollably, and I fell on my hands. "Felix, you are more special then you realize, everything that has happened to you has happened for a reason, and it all began with your past. The one you refuse to remember.

"You used to live here, when you were just a boy, an experiment at the mercy of my successors. You were raised here at the Academy to test your mental integrity, and like so many other failures before you, your altered genetics allowed for you to have some rather unexpected powers. Like me you have the blessing and curse of being a mind reader. Don't lie to yourself, I know you've used it before.

"And as for the memories that you claim you've never had, that is a tragedy all on its own. My successors were fools, they were unable to realize talent when they saw it, they toyed with you, tortured you, and put you in here, my greatest creation of all. The White Room. A device capable of tapping into the deepest corners of the psyche and projecting them into this room. If you wont believe me, then believe the Room, it never lies." With that, he vanished, leaving only me and my misery in the room. My blood ran cold in my veins, as if I was actually back in Siberia, at the mercy of the weather. Part of me wanted to drop dead right then and there, another wished I died in Odin's place, another wished I had never been born.

Faint cries echoed off of the nonexistent walls, and my head shot up out of reflex. Their sitting in the chair at the table was a boy with dark brown hair, and deep red eyes. It was me. Tears were falling off of my cheeks into a small pool at the base of the chair, and with every passing moment I was reliving the past that had so long eluded me. I was reliving it in my mind while I was watching it, like watching a documentary about my own life, it was unsettling on a level that had never existed before. Cruel voices sounded in the still air, taunting me.

"You forgot her, how sad. You don't deserve to exist. Why even bother with you, you're nothing. How could you forget your own sister? You're nothing but a failure, a monster." The voices laughed again and again and again. Ringing in my ears and in my memory. The young me stopped crying and looked up. I grabbed the gun off of the table and pointed it at my head, I broke into tears all over again and the voices continued. "Oh look he thinks he's going to kill himself. Go ahead, no one will miss you." They laughed. My hand tensed up around the trigger, and with a bang my body dropped to floor.

After that it all came back to me. Everything. From all of the testing that had been preformed on me, to the surgery where they wiped my memory, to my suicide, to my sister that I would never see again, to Jeb looming over me and the first words I though I had ever heard.

"Welcome back."

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Holy... Wow plot device much, well I guess that explains a whole lot. To bad that's only half of the mystery, the other half is what happens after this chapter. After all, Felix still has to deal with Locke, not to mention Dylan's dead. So much for a car accident. Like Itex is going to let one of their most valuable experiments die in a car wreck.

Anyway, sorry for the wait, I had a minor case of writers block and it totally shut me down. Well that, and my brother hijacked the computer for a history report.

Nevertheless, please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


	32. Chapter 32

Now we move on to the second part of the shocking twist of events. Last I checked, Dylan was dead, Felix was having a mental breakdown, and Locke was still as insane as ever. Yeah, that sounds about right. The question becomes, how in the blazes is Felix supposed to survive this?

I own nothing!

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Chapter 32: If it Come Back, It's Yours

I was on the ground, unable to move. The shock of eight years of memories coming back all at once, coupled with the shock of eight years of lies crashing down on me had left me reduced to nothing more then a shell. Locke loomed over me, muttering those accursed words over and over again. Welcome back. It was the beginning of the lie, it was all a fabrication. All along I've been nothing but one of the mindless experiments, produced to fail, to die; to live a brief and impotent life only to die silently without a thought of remorse. I was worthless.

"It's amazingly cruel isn't it?" Locke towered over me and I shuddered at his presence, looking up weakly at his dark face. "Ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is power, and with that knowledge you can make the future what you want it to be." He gazed down at me, at my wretched existence, like the scientist he used to be. I shut my eyes, unable to lie to myself, tell myself that it was all just another nightmare. "It doesn't have to end here my son. You can fight back at them, them, who lied to you your whole life, who turned you into a dog! Those self proclaimed geniuses that stole from you everything and everyone you ever loved... Including... your sister." I eyes snapped open letting in the painful light. Tear stained cheeks and brown eyes flashed in my mind and the White Room produced a scream that could pierce soundproof walls. Victoria.

Tears clung to my eyes, refusing to fall. Those sick monsters in lab coats took my sister from me! I could remember after they had wiped my memory, they took me to her, and couldn't tell her who she was, or who I was. I could remember her, crying, clinging to me as if I was the only thing in her life that made it worth living. I could remember them taking me to the White Room, having to pry her off of me and hold her back. I could hear her scream through the walls. Her cries for me, screaming at them about what they did to me. Now it was too late, too late to save her, too late to call out her name. She was gone. One tear did escape the clutches of my eyelids, and it meant the world to me. How could I forget my own family?

"It's not your fault, it never was. It's their fault, they stole it all from you. Your family, your friends, your life... But not your purpose." I didn't have to see it, but I knew one of his eyebrows rose. He crouched down beside me, the rank odor of his breath made me gag. "I can give you a reason to go on. Revenge. Make them suffer for it all, make them feel the way you feel." Misery loves company. "I know you've felt it before, when you killed Alex. You wanted him to suffer, to make him feel every last ounce of pain that he could physically endure before you extinguished his life. Don't lie to yourself, I know what your thinking. Every, single, second." My eyes met obsidian as he stared right through me. "I know you loved it, the power, the raw, unchecked madness, the ecstasy of it all. Why not go back to it? You can use it, harness it into a weapon of your making, and make them pay for everything they've done to you. They deserve it."

No matter how hard I tried to look at it a different way, he was right. He had always been right, about everything. Why shouldn't I be mad at them? I had every right and reason to be. Why shouldn't I make them suffer? Why shouldn't I take away what they have taken from me? My eyes darted back to Locke's and I could see the satisfaction in them, the anticipation from my revenge. Then it struck like a bolt out of the blue.

He wanted me to have my revenge. He wanted me to lose myself in the madness that I was all too familiar with, the blood lust. If I let my anger get the best of me, it would be all the easier for him to manipulate me. Sad to say, that was easier said then done, especially after he had killed Dylan. the epiphany rattled through mind, and it didn't take long for Locke to realize it as well. He began to growl like an animal, and that all too familiar smile turned into a malicious sneer.

_So you gave come this far, and after I have given you what you have sought for the longest time, you would still cling to those lies, those traitors. _

He kicked my in the ribs until I coughed up flecks of blood. Sparks of rage flew in the shadow of his eyes, he bore his fangs and began to snarl at me.

_I gave you everything! Every chance, and this is how you repay me! They say if you want a job done right do it yourself, and it looks like I'll have to do this the hard way. _

My eyes snapped open against my will, and I came face to face with with shards of obsidian that bore holes into my mind. It was like having a mental lobotomy, and as excruciating as an open heart surgery without anesthesia. He was attacking my mind with his, a battle of wills and dominance.

_You can't hope to surpass me, if you can't even master your own abilities. You might as well give up and let me in, after all, you're only delaying the inevitable._

_After all of this, after all of the lies and the truth, you're the mastermind behind it all, you've tricked me into listening to you, you've manipulated everyone, even Jeb! _

_And it took you this long to figure that out? How sad, maybe I was wrong about you, maybe you are just another soulless failure._

_I'm no failure!_

_You can keep telling yourself that all you want, it wont change a thing. Hahaha!_

It all felt so futile, with every passing second more and more of my body went numb_. _I could feel him getting closer and closer, waiting for me to give up and throw myself into oblivion. My fingers began to twitch involuntarily, no, out of his command. I was losing myself, both physically and mentally. It felt like being pushed into an impossibly small corner, and I was forced to shrink to fit impossibly more. Was this the end? Was this really all I was meant to see and feel? Was I really a failure? The only reason I was still alive was because Jeb fetched me from death's maw. Did I really deserve to exist at all?

_If you didn't, you wouldn't be here now would you? After all, the present and future are built upon the past. What are you building off of?_

_Loss, love and life._

How sad that my life could be summed up in such a short sentence, how sad that those were the only things I had worth fighting for; and the saddest of all was that those were the only things that kept me going.

"Why wont you surrender!" Locke shouted inches away from my face. "What possesses you, vexes you to continue when you have absolutely no hope? Your morals? Your insignificant promises that you've made and forgotten so long ago?" My lack of an answer only proved his point, it was over. He won...

The disturbing thing about the blood lust is that it's uncontrollable; even more so when one becomes filled with rage. Unchecked and unchallenged it could not only destroy whatever soul became the victim of the ensuing chaos, but it could also destroy the mind, sending it into an irreversible primal state of pure vicious instinct. It could destroy that which separates us from the rest of the world, it's what makes us human. The bitter irony of it all was that I had spent my whole life thinking that it was the most sickening evil on the face of the earth, thinking that it was the bane of my existence; and now, at what seemed like the end of it all, it's what saved me.

Every emotion, every sensation, every memory came back flooding into the mind that controlled my body. Locke's mind. The force pressing me into a corner backed off, and Locke screamed like a banshee. Madness illuminated his coal eyes as if his sanity was shattered all over again. Invisible windows broke everywhere as the White Room attempted to illustrate Locke's warped mind. I regained control of my body, and scrambled to my feet. Locke was reeling in shock, gripping his long tangled hair as if he was going to rip out locks of it. He stumbled and fell to his knees, his eyes wide with shock, darting back and forth in utter incredulity. He began muttering nonsense and incoherent words, spouting the madness that he was overflowing with. It was wretched, he fell completely and began shaking in convulsions, and after one seizure subsided another soon followed. His eyes clouded over, in a ghostly milky white, he stared at me, unable to blink. His mouth opened but no sound escaped his throat. Instead the White Room made an inhuman moan that shook me to my core, like a beast taking it's dying breath, a cry for a salvation that would never come.

He sprang to his feet and bolted for the gun next to Dylan's body. I would have charged him if the gun wasn't pointed at me. His facial muscles were twitching as if he had tourettes. His eyes had returned to their dark coloration and he started to laugh. At me.

"This isn't the end, because the dream isn't over yet. Not until you all see it my way. Not until you all admit that I was right all along!" I could see him pull the trigger, and I could hear the bang from the gun echo in my ears as I fell to the floor. I could hear his cackle, the thud of my body on the ground and the clatter of gunmetal on the bloodstained canvas. The White Room dimmed slowly and completely until I couldn't tell if my eyes were closed or not. I was on the floor in a pool of my own blood. Deja vu...

I woke up to the sound of a heart monitor and the smell of anesthetic. My body ached as my nerves flickered back to life, each sending stings of pain up my spine. I let out a burdened sigh, not caring who saw it. As far as I was concerned I deserved it. A faint smirk altered me to a presence off to the side of the room. It was Isaac. His eyes were bloodshot as if he hadn't slept in days, and he was actually wearing a black t-shirt. A quick glance told me everything. Dylan was gone, and he wasn't coming back, and somehow I had eluded death's cold grasp yet again. I blinked slowly and Isaac got up from his chair at the side of the room.

"He got away, and we've had no luck finding a trace of him. It's like he's dropped off the radar completely." I gulped and clenched my fists. He's gone, and if I was lucky, forever. Isaac had his hands clenched as well, he wasn't willing to show his remorse. His closest friend, practically his brother, was gone, and all because of that deranged psychopath. There was nothing that he couldn't ruin or destroy. "You've been out of it for two days, they took out the bullet and stitched you up." He had missed everything vital with that one shot, who knows, maybe my luck is changing? I sighed again, and he hung his head low.

"It isn't over. Not until I see his corpse put six feet under." I muttered against the pain. Isaac shot me a look of concern, he wasn't willing to risk anything. Not now, not after everything. I didn't think either of us could take another blow, we were like withered trees waiting for a gust of wind to topple us over. He was about to say something but closed his mouth before he could start. It was a miracle that I could still feel pity, it was a miracle that I was still alive. Isaac paced over to the clock and watched the second hand skip across the face. The only noises in the room were the faint beeping of machines and the tick of gears.

"It's not over until all of us are dead, or worse." Pessimism rolled off his lips, could it be any more hopeless? I felt so powerless, I was unable to stop Locke, I was unable to remember anything until it was to late, and worst of all, I was weak. I shouldn't be alive right now, I shouldn't be consoling Isaac, and yet; here I am. Fate is a funny thing, and the more you try to control it, the more it spins out of control. My head fell back on the pillow and I closed my eyes, trying to lose myself in the fragile peace that existed in the room. after all, I didn't know how long it was going to last.

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Dun dun dun! This has to have been one of the hardest chapters I've ever had to write. So much madness, so much emotion, it makes me wish I could make movie, it would be so much easier.

Again, sorry for the delay, but it's the end of the semester so I've been studying for an endless mountain of tests and writing paper after paper. but somehow I still have time to squeeze in a chapter, so I hope you enjoyed. TBC, so all in due time. After all, Locke is still out there. Hahahaha!


	33. Chapter 33

Yet again I give you another sampling from Locke's book, and now that certain plot elements are out in the open I can finally write this chapter without the worries of giving up spoilers. Well, almost.

I own nothing!

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Chapter 33: The Book of Locke part 3

_Fate is a funny thing. It can shape the fortunes of an empire or the individual. It can raise them to a position of sheer omnipotence, or it could crumble them to dust with the fortunes of another. It appears as though the fates have been kind to me, and I now have found a way conquer the debt that all men pay. A way to watch the days go by and not feel the oppressive weight of time crushing this form. For all that has a definite shape, must one day cease to exist. The answer may reside within the confines of this very prison. A mind, with more potential then I have ever seen in all of my years. A mind that does not yet recognize what it truly is, what it fully capable of; and for my plan to succeed I may need to enlighten this poor soul to what he desires and fears the most. The truth. _

_He is so much like me, I find it hard to believe that one such as him could exist. His past is riddled with a mystery that he cannot solve at the time being, for his mind has locked away the answer on a level deeper then suppression. But to me, nothing concerning the mind is hidden from my gaze, and I must say as I have said before. Fate is a funny thing. Whether by sheer circumstance he had found his way into my successor's service, or perhaps destiny has hand its hand in making the present what it is. I'm not fate, I simply know how to move the pieces across the board. Perhaps my gift to all experiments may help him along his way. I have every reason to, even my past as a scientist has its curious tendencies. The mind is a terrible thing to waste, especially when it never had the chance to grow and expand, to feel and see the world on all of its terrible majesty._

_It appears as though my successors have delved into a long forgotten project. The project that made me who I am to this very day. Irony always has the last laugh, they named the beings spawned by their work Erasers; and the first one they spawned is that same peculiar mind that caught my attention. I always have an eye on him, seeing how he is developing, and how he copes with the blood lust. It is stunning beyond a shadow of a doubt, no matter what gets thrown at him, he handles it with skill that surpasses his years. It occurred to me at that time that the recombining of the genetic structure of a being was best preformed at the younger ages, and the earlier it was preformed, the more stable the outcomes were. This young mind was given all the time needed to mature into what he would become. After a few months they created a few more like him, no growth enhancers, and they turned out the same. Although, I sense nothing hidden in them, nothing that I can use to my favor._

_After those few successes, they began to create more and more of them, unaware of what I had discovered long ago. They began giving the genes accelerators, and it drastically diminished the longevity of the subjects. While the body would mature, it left the mind in the same underdeveloped state. The minds would then fall victim to a state of insanity created by the blood lust. I am glad to say that the boy has not fallen into the madness. He has in fact surpassed all expectations, and is by far the most skilled of any of the Erasers. It may be time for me to make my presence known unto him. _

_I had the most peculiar dream last night. I was in the middle of a crossroad, and I didn't know which way I was going to go. I caught a glimpse of white feathers and began walking down the road that lead to the apparition. I continued to walk, and eventually I came across a deep forest, where the canopy was so thick that a minuscule amount of light snaked its way through the branches. There was a clearing in the canopy and a pillar of light shined on a bed of flowers, were a lone white rose stood out amongst the bunch. One by one, the petals turned as red as blood and withered, falling off silence. The last petal clung to the stem until a cold breeze snapped it off. It was haunting, the red from the petals dripped off until the ground was soaked. I continued my journey through the dark forest until I reached the other side. I caught yet another glimpse of the white feathers, this time they were followed by a flash of light that consumed the world. I aimlessly walked through the light, my eyes struggled to adjust to unfamiliar glare; and at the end of the journey I found my self in a world of white light; surrounded by angels, each of their wings a different pattern. But I was stained with the sins of my past, and they all looked at me with judging eyes. They all raised a finger and pointed at me, the ground beneath me opened up and I was swallowed by a world of fire. I was consumed by the inferno, and the light above me vanished in the ash and soot that flew out of the flames. The flames licked at my feet as I descended into what could only be described as hell. I would not burn physically, but I was not hidden from the pain of being burned alive, my body shook and writhed in an endless agony. I shut my eyes and willed it all to end, and finally I awoke. _

_The boy is afraid of me, he wont admit it to himself, but he is, there is no hiding it. I've asked him to visit me twice now, and he has come both times. He's curious of what he does not understand, and every time he comes to visit me, I try to enlighten him to his past. I try and have him realize what he can do, but to no avail at this point. Time is running out, and with every passing day my body grows weaker, I may have to bend the circumstances at hand to my favor. _

_Young Mr. Batchelder has grown more cautious about me. In light of my recent exploits, he has wasted more effort in attempting to restrain me in this prison. He knows I can escape with no effort and yet he continues to try to confine me. It's almost comical. Not just his attempts, but his absolute fear of me. He fears what I know, what I can do. To him, and the company as a whole; what I could unleash, what I could destroy, what I could "erase". He still comes to see me in secret though, trying to get nothing but the truth from me. He still hasn't a clue as to why I remain here, and that is what disturbs him the most, robs him of the most sleep. Deep in the late witching hour I can hear his troubled mind clawing at mental chalkboards, trying to make sense of what he perceives as madness. Like I said, its almost comical. _

_After my escaped last night, poor Mr. Batchelder has put me under under even more security. I must say, these shackles are much stronger then the last ones. Of course by now, young Mr. Batchelder must realize that no lock can hold me back and that the doors of this complex are nonexistent to me. Of course the boy knows that as well, he has grown in his abilities, and yet he not only doesn't acknowledge them, but he can't decipher between his thoughts and those of others. He has much work to do before my plan can come to full fruition; and if he continues to be numb to the enlightenment, then I may have to take more drastic actions. _

_It is amazing what loss can drive a person to. It can harden the soul until it is as cold and unreceptive as permafrost, or it can lead to a meltdown at the hands of unchecked emotions. Even more amazing is that I have prime examples of each case at my doorstep, the boy and the object of his affection. Attachments are dangerous, as they can only serve a purpose if they remain unharmed, but in a world as chaotic as this, they only serve to harm. In short, Odin is dead. It has shocked the entire system to its core, and mind after mind is overflowing with such troubling emotions. Depression, fear, anger, even rage; but the most peculiar of all. Delight, sick cold sadistic delight. Another of the breed has done him in, and Mr. Batchelder knows it. This may prove useful to me. I cannot afford to have Mr. Batchelder tell the boy the truth, and I cannot allow him to act on this most intriguing experiment. This rogue beast, he follows no rules except the ones he sets. He may yet prove to be useful to me. _

_My successors are locked in a battle of action and indecision. They want to tell the boy, their conscious has gotten the best of them, how sad, they have submitted to the one thing that can halt progress for the time being. Morals only stall the gears, sacrifice is the oil to make the machine run as it should. I have a hypothesis that it will not be long before the truth does make itself manifest, and when it does, the foundations will shake and then the buildings will shake. One by one, bonds will break, and the boy will unknowingly come closer and closer to achieving what I have planned for him._

_He is one step closer to the truth. I've seen his potential, he did away with the experiment that I had deemed useful after he had destroyed Odin's sibling. I must say, the rage expressed, the sheer power contained inside him is astounding and terrifying at the same time. He has the potential to be more powerful then I have ever thought. Perhaps even more so then myself, all the better for my plan. But it is time for me to leave this prison for now. He cannot reach the breaking point here, here things could go wrong, and I can't allow for a disturbance from young Mr. Batchelder. I will move on to the holding place of my greatest creation of all. The birthplace of the boy, the end will begin where it all began.  
_

_He's near the breaking point, I can feel his constitution on the precipice of a dangerously unstable mountain. One more push and he will descend into the oblivion below. he will see what he has long feared and desired. I know what will happen next, he will be crushed under the weight of it all. His whole life has been a lie fabricated by my successors in their feeble attempt to surpass my work. He will see them for the failures that they really are, and then he will seek revenge on them, and I can give it to him. I can give him the opportunity to exact revenge on my successors, the people who had betrayed him and lied to him all this time. Everything is going according to plan._

_I didn't anticipate how unsettling it would be for me to return to the place of my enlightenment. The Academy certainly has changed over the course of my absence. The layout of the floors hadn't changed to my surprise, but then again, they never thought that I would return. My powers allowed me to slip by every guard and camera unnoticed, and as I began to retrace my steps through the halls, the building itself seemed to welcome me back as memory after memory of my successes returned to my mind. So much of my life had been spent here trying to improve and change the human condition. So much time wasted on failures and red tape. But no more, now there will only be success. _

_My creation welcomed me back, and as I sat down awaiting the inevitable arrival of the boy it did me the honor of projecting various memories that had come back to me. Emotions that I had long thought dead were stirred up inside me as I watch a disturbingly younger me preform countless experiments on a never ending supply of failures. It is a most curious machine, even to me its creator, never before had I conceived of it as a way to further my goals until now. As a way to bring back was isn't meant to be seen, as a way to dig up the hatchet and insight the emotions that I am now feeling. The boy will see it my way, and in the end of it all I will be right. They will all see just how wrong they are, they will beg for mercy and I will be proven right. The truth of it all will be mine. I cannot be stopped, not here. Not in the world of my own making.  


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_Wow, back story much. I must say it was hard cramming it all into one chapter, but somehow I managed to give the story from Locke's point of view. That, and for those of you who read my last story, there are a select few lines that may jog your memory. *mischeviously* The plot thickens. Of course in the next chapter we'll get back to Felix and the chaos that will follow the events at the Academy. So keep your eyes open, because things may get familiar really fast. Until then, and all in good time and the usual stuff. _  
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	34. Chapter 34

Anyway, back to everyone's favorite mind reading Eraser. I can only imagine what he's going to do to Jeb when he finally gets the chance. But before that he has to get out of the Academy. Oh boy... It's never that easy.

I own nothing!

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Chapter 34: Death is only the Beginning

Isaac didn't stay for very long after that. He would reappear on and off for the next week as the scientists made sure that I was recovering in a stable fashion. Every day at noon a psychologist would come in and ask me the same questions over and over again. What happened, where did he go, and did he say what he was going to do? Of course I knew why they kept coming back. They didn't believe me, or they thought I was as crazy as Locke himself. Either way it all meant the same thing to me, they didn't trust me. I could see it in their eyes, every one of them. At the end of the week they finally released me from the medical ward but kept me under near constant watch, I could hear the security cameras swivel every time I would walk down a hall or enter a room. It was unsettling knowing that I was being spied on by the same people that made me who I was.

I was ordered not to leave the Academy which only served to put me in a worse state of mind. Did they think that I was going to become some sort of lunatic that would become the next Locke? Were they going to send me back to the School just to have me locked up for the rest of my natural life, or worse? I couldn't trust any of them anymore, did I trust anyone? There was Hades, and Isaac. Great, one of them was miles away or on a mission, and the other was morning the loss of his closest friend because of me.

Not wanting to be constantly reminded of the thousand eyes that watched every room I reserved myself to the room they gave me. A simple bed and desk with a lamp. The walls were the same medical tint of white as the rest of the building, and the sheets on the bed were stiff from disuse. It was like a furnished prison cell at best. The sheets made a cracking sound as I sat on the bed. Not caring anymore I sighed and forced my eyes shut. i was standing at a mental crossroads, unfortunately there were a million paths to choose from.

_I'm telling you he's unstable. He's a threat to us all!_

_I heard that Locke was using him to kill all of us. _

_Why can't we just get rid of him like the rest?_

The sounds came from nowhere and everywhere all at once. It was torture, hearing people talk about you behind your back. Knowing what you shouldn't and not knowing how to react about it. No wonder Locke went insane.

There was a knock at my door, I half expected it to be an group of scientists ready to strap me to the bed and give me a lethal injection. To my surprise it was Isaac, and not just him, but his father too. It hadn't been that long since I had last seen The Chairman, and yet the memory of his gaze was still fresh in my mind. Now two pairs of silver eyes pierced my being. I glanced at Isaac and he in turn glanced at The Chairman; he cleared his throat.

"I wont try to lie to you or give you any sentimental comfort. What's done is done, and unfortunately, Locke managed to escape, we're trying our best to track him down, it wont be long before he's back where he belongs." His gaze was cold and unwavering. There was no implication in his words, but simply from his gaze I felt as though I had been backhanded. A punishment for failing to stop the one person that could ruin it all. Isaac had been staring at the floor this whole time, he didn't even blink. He was here physically, but his mind was nowhere that could be comprehended. The Chairman shot a glance at his son and turned around. "I'll leave you to the rest." He opened the door and paused.

"Thank you father." Isaac muttered just loud enough to be heard coherently. He blinked and looked up at me, waiting to hear the door click shut behind his father. Immediately after the door closed his head snapped up and he stared at me, as if a giant burden had been lifted off of his shoulders. "It's chaos out there, you have it lucky being isolated from it all." He paced over to the desk and sat in the chair, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Somehow I get the feeling that ostracism is a punishment, not a blessing." I could feel his eyes dart to me and back to the wall. I turned to face him, he was still wearing a black shirt, and I could see sleepless nights reflected in his eyes. Life hadn't been easy for him either, and I could only image what the superiors were going to do about Dylan. An avian was dead, years of work were destroyed and lost with him.

"He wasn't just an experiment. He was a person, with a soul, a purpose beyond that of his creation." He ran his fingers through his snow white hair. "I mean look at what they've done to us. We mean this little to them. We're like toys that are thrown out once they're bored with us." He got up and paced across the floor in an attempt to release all of the pent up emotions inside him, his hands slid into his pockets.

"Has your father said anything about it?" He stopped in the middle of a step as if I had caught him off guard.

"My father said that he had a funeral arranged for him." He turned to face me. "You're invited of course." I regretted reinforcing the truth, it was the last thing either of us needed. "Gunther-Hagan notified me that he wouldn't be able to attend as he's caught up in affairs in Europe." That probably stung the most, he was Dylan's guardian and yet he couldn't even show up to the funeral. Even Isaac and Dylan were motes in the sight of the scientists. Isaac began pacing the room again, trying to put himself in a trance and distract him from the world. I wished it was just that simple, finding a distraction that could not only occupy time, but the mind as well. After he paced back and forth a considerable amount of times, the silence got under my skin.

"Your father said that they were tracking him." He stopped and looked at me rather concerned. "Do you think that they'll find him?"

"Not even in the slightest. If they could they would have him by now, prey doesn't easily escape the hounds of hell, no offense." None taken, it was truth anyway. "After everything that's happened, and after rooting out the truth from the reports they collected from you, I think it's save to say that he's gone. A rabid beast not meant much longer for the world." He paused and looked at the silver watch on his wrist, sighing when it occurred to him how the time had gotten away. he made his way to the door reluctantly slow. "I'll come and get you when it's time for the funeral." The cameras in the hall swiveled as the door clicked shut.

Isaac and his father came to get me a few hours later, Isaac had changed from his black shirt into a suit that was identical to his father's. Each of them had a rose in their pockets, Isaac handed one to me, and without a word we headed down the hall. The Chairman would occasionally glance at me and Isaac, I couldn't tell what it was he was looking out for, his safety, or my sanity. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't penetrate his mind, of course my powers don't work when I want them to.

The Chairman lead us to the garage where there was a hearse awaiting us. The windows were tinted and the driver's face remained hidden. The trunk was open revealing a luxurious casket made of a rich mahogany colored wood. Isaac shot me a quick look before looking at his father, who in turn opened the door for me and his son. He didn't get in after us, instead he closed the door and then the trunk.

"He's not coming. Meetings and what not." Isaac muttered as he gazed out the window at his father who waved the hearse on its way. The look in The Chairman's eyes would be burned in my mind for the rest of my life. He wasn't just waving us off, he was saying goodbye to the memory of Dylan. Dismissing the tragedy to the grave and whoever may stumble upon the headstone. Isaac and I went dead silent after that.

Heavy rain drops pelted the hearse in a never ending onslaught, and the maze of trees flew by the hearse as it made its way to the cemetery. The whole town was silent as if everyone knew what was happening. A thick fog consumed the hearse, only penetrated by the rain. A pair of heavy iron gates swung open as the hearse approached the tomb cluttered grave site. The hearse stopped at a mud filled open grave, Isaac stepped out and opened a black umbrella only then to hand it to me, leaving himself completely unprotected from the downpour. Two men were standing on either side of the grave, each holding a shovel; the driver got out and opened the trunk and the three men began lifting the casket and gingerly set it in the grave. It was one of the most unsettling things I had ever seen, and it only served to remind me of things I wished I could and Phoenix never had a funeral, at least one that I was aware of. Instead the memorial was reserved for someone who actually mattered to the company.

My grip on the umbrella tightened, I shot a look at Isaac who's eyes were fixed on the casket now sitting six feet under. He was drenched by the rain and yet he stood there as if he was unaware of just how wet he was. His silver eyes seemed dimmer then they had been before, as if the luster that made them shine was now gone. The driver had returned to the hearse and the gravediggers stood attentively, waiting for the two of us to leave before finishing the burial. Isaac picked the rose out of his pocket and two of the petals fell into the grave. He held the flower in front of his face, rolling the stem in between his fingers.

"O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! How all occasions do inform against me..." Another petal fell into the grave. He let out a listless and halfhearted chuckle. "Even now, in death, he makes me laugh." He dropped the rose and one last petal came lose and fluttered down. He bent down and grabbed a handful of dirt from the base of my feet and stuck his arm out over the grave. His eyes were wet, I couldn't tell if it was the rain. He looked afraid, scared as if he was about to lose Dylan forever.

_My friend, will we meet again in the next life? Or are we doomed to separate eternities?_

He was reluctant to open his hand. Battling with himself if he should or shouldn't, and I was standing there watching it all unfold like some great tragedy. Agonizingly slow he dropped the dirt onto the casket. His hand hung in the air as if dirt still clung to him and refused to fall; his hand clenched into a fist, he spun around, putting his hands in his pockets and he headed back towards the hearse. I stared at the open grave, not knowing what to do. I pulled out the rose in my pocket and dropped it into the grave, and then a handful of dirt as well. I could still see the casket, were the roses and dirt supposed to block the memory, lock it away to the corners of the mind? They failed to do so.

I headed back to the hearse and as soon as I opened the door I could hear the gravediggers shoveling the dirt back into the grave. Isaac had wrapped himself in a towel, but his hair was still dripping wet, he acted as though he didn't care at this point, that the world could end and he wouldn't notice. He looked at me as though he was dead inside, he had nothing, no one to turn to except me. No one besides me would ever know exactly what he was going through, and for that, I pitied him. He didn't deserve any of this, after all, it was all my fault.

The hearse sped away into the fog, leaving the two gravediggers alone on the hill. I couldn't look away from them, I wondered if they knew exactly who they were burying. If they knew exactly what they were doing, who they were hiding from the world. The hearse turned a corner and I lost sight of them. I let out the sigh that Isaac couldn't and hung my head low.

"There was something that Jeb said to me after Odin died." He looked at me after the unexpected remark. Part of me didn't know what I was doing, or if I even should have said anything. "He told me that some people can't be replaced."

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That's what I call a long expected funeral. I hate to say it, but this was one of the most morbid chapter's I've ever written, for me anyway. Don't worry though, after this it will lighten up a bit. Hopefully, because after this, things get rather interesting, especially with Jeb. Spoiler alert! Many thanks to all of my patient readers and reviewers, keep doing what you do best. Any way TBC, and all in due time.


	35. Chapter 35

Needless to say that after the release of ANGEL, we've all been in shock after the hell of a cliffhanger that JP has fixed on us for a year! Sorry about that. Post ANGEL madness and whatnot. Oh, I'm terribly sorry that it's been forever since I updated, but I got carried away with a few short story I've been writing, and the forces of the universe aligned against me to prevent me from even sitting in a computer chair. In other words I've been getting ready for graduation and it's been a pain.

I own nothing!

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Chapter 35: What you Thought you Knew

I wish I could say that after Dylan's funeral things got better.

I wish I could say that.

But no, this being my life things are never that easy. Isaac vanished soon after we returned to the Academy, and because of my powers I unwillingly picked up that him and The Chairman returned to the Institute. I was summarily escorted to a new limo that transported me to the airport where I was handed off to a set of security guards. I half expected them to put handcuffs on me or put a bag over my head. Instead they locked me in a room for three hours before letting me out. Then I was passed on to yet another pair of men who escorted me to a private jet that transported me back to the School. In short, I was annoyed beyond reckoning and in desperate need of some answers that were nowhere to be found.

The desert sun scorched the bleached sand in stark contrast to the downpour I had experienced up north. The light was made artificial in the garage and I made my way through the empty and ever so familiar hallways to the laboratory. I crashed through the doors, startling a few of the scientists who were crowded around one of the avians. Jeb was looming over the avian, carefully examining the outstretched wings for anything that could be considered a problem. His eyes, slowly made their way across the room, and once he caught sight of me he froze. The air grew noticeably colder, and one by one the scientists filtered out of the room until it was only me, Jeb and the avian.

"Care to explain what the hell happened back there Jeb?" I was spitting venom at him, praying that my acid words would dissolve his resolve. He stood up, trying to control his breathing, he was afraid. Afraid of what I could do to him.

"How much did he tell you?" He blinked slowly, analyzing every minute shift in my body.

"Everything." His hands clenched into fists. "I want the truth Jeb." He chuckled weakly, catching me by surprise.

"That's what he said he was looking for. Before he went rabid on us." Now my hands were balled into fists, he was toying with me, comparing me to that madman. He began pacing over to one of the monitors, watching a green line dart across a black background. "I had hoped that it would never come to this, that you would never find out who you really are." My jaw clenched subconsciously. "Everything he told you is true, you were just another experiment, and I saved you. I made you who you are and brought you back, albeit at such a cost." He almost cringed. "Surely you can see it the other way! Even I couldn't have anticipated what you would have become, the predecessor for a legion of successes, proof that that madman was wrong from the start! Don't you see? It's all because of you that everything has happened the way it is, and if Locke is allowed to roam the earth, he could destroy everything that we've created."

His hands hung open in the air, he was waiting for my response. His eyes were fixated on me; panic hid just under the surface. For some reason it reminded me of the numerous times me and Alex would face off after one of us said 'bite me.' The memory of all those rash emotions running wild, restrained only by a shred of dominant will.

"Leave. Now." It wasn't a suggestion, it was a command, and I was as shocked as Jeb that I even uttered those words. He stared back at me incredulous for what seemed like a silent eternity, the only thing that kept the notion of time passing was the increasingly slow tick of a clock. Finally he blinked, breaking the hypnotic silence by clearing his throat and exhaling slowly. He spun around and walked into the holding unit rather calmly for my liking, and I, did the same only heading for the break room. The moment the door clicked shut behind me I ran for the break room like a lost child in a zoo, looking for his parents; and like a lost child, my emotions were running wild. Panic and uncertainty clouded everything.

I opened the door to the break room unsure of what would be on the other side. So much had happened in such a short amount of time, I was afraid of the one place I was actually comfortable in changing. The chair was still in it's spot next to the book case, but the room was bigger somehow, emptier. The pool table was gone and the fish tank had been emptied. I wandered through the room finally resting in my chair, it was covered by a fine layer of dust. The door creaked open and in came Hades. He stopped in his tracks and just stood there dumbfounded, looking at me as if I had come back from the dead.

"Have I really been gone that long?" He finally smirked, simply elated at the fact that I appeared to be fine. What did I ever do to deserve a friend like him?

"What happened? Jeb's been going crazy like the world was collapsing around him, he's been walking the halls in the dead of night as if he's being tormented by some nightmare."

"He might as well be." I muttered. Hades looked at me odd, my skills at hiding my emotions were practically nonexistent at that point and so it did take much effort for him to read me. I looked at him, not even knowing where to begin, seeing as how it all began when I woke up; I sighed and crossed my arms. "After I left to find Locke I went to the Institute and had a chance encounter with Dr. Gunther-Hagan. He wanted me to go to the Academy because of Locke's connections and past there. Of course he had already infiltrated the facility and was waiting for me, toying with me, trying to get me to be as insane as he is; misery loves company I suppose." I paused after that to look up at him, seeing if he could sense the clear apparent holes in my story, I couldn't tell him about Isaac or Dylan, it would only begin to widen the crack that threatened to shatter the world he lived in. Even though Isaac's revelation to me that he was an avian was what could be called the beginning of this whole nightmare, I didn't see it that way, it was the beginning of the truth.

"He got away didn't he?" Hades finally began to prod. I nodded back silently. One hand balled up into a fist, he closed his eyes and sighed. "Why is he doing this to us, let alone why do we even let him walk the earth? All he's doing is causing us more and more problems, he's like a cancer that wont die." I got up from the chair and paced over to the bookcase, eyes drifting over the dusty tomes.

"That's not the problem." The words were blurted out without an analysis. "He's been right about one thing. We're on a leash, we're like dogs to them, called out of our kennels only to be fed the violence that drives us. We're nothing to them, we gave our humanity to them and they took it away when we became a watchdog." Hades stared at me almost dumbfounded at my diction. I looked at his confused blue eyes, suddenly regretting what I had said. He was scared, scared of the truth, but the truth shone through the mist of confusion. He didn't deserve to go through the hellish existence I had already suffered.

Hades walked over to the couch across the room and laid down with his eyes closed; he was trying to let everything I said sink in, breathing slowly and trying to think as rationally as he possibly could. He sighed and opened his eyes.

"Do you regret it?" He asked suddenly. I shot him a curios look and he folded his arms. "About becoming an Eraser?" I didn't know how to answer that, after all, it wasn't my choice to begin with. My lack of an answer prompted one from him. "Some days I wake up and look at myself in the mirror, not even recognizing who I am. I've changed so much since then, and I can't help but wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn't been turned into what I am now. Would I have had the chances to live a normal life? Or would I have been a social outcast?" He paused as if he was treading dangerous waters, and then he smiled weakly, giving a faint smirk before he looked me in the eye. His past was open to my mind. He was only a few years older then I was when he became an Eraser. He came home one day to find his parents talking to a man in a lab coat; his mother was crying. The man took him off to the side and gave him a proposal, a proposal he said that would change his life for the better and give him the opportunity to see the world like he never had before. 'But', the man said, 'you will never be able to come home again.'

"I don't remember what I was thinking that day. But if I had the chance to do it over again, I wouldn't go with him." His eyes went from bitter remorse to apologetic in a split second. I wove my hand dismissing his comment, he paused still regretting his comment.

"Don't worry about it, we're all entitled to our opinions, it's the only freedom we truly have." I paused. "Do you remember what it was like?" He shook his head slightly before he answered.

"I remember being on the table, being hooked up to countless sensors and being scared out of my wits." He chuckled at his cowardice. "I remember the looks on every one of the scientists, and I remember Jeb walking into the room right before I was knocked out. After that... it was all red, roars and screams, even flecks of blood. I could feel myself being shoved into a cage and then let loose in the training room. Then there was you. I remember you being there, sparring with me, helping me release all of the immediate blood lust." He noticed my nostalgic grin and smiled back. "Now that I think about it, I never thanked you for that."

"You don't need too... you'd be the second person ever too." I muttered the last part, trying my hardest to avoid a painful memory. It had always been my job to help break in the newest additions to the breed, I knew it wasn't really them at that point and so I never held a grudge against any of them, in fact, it made me feel special, knowing that all of them were different from me, that I was the special one. It's a shame that now I knew why.

I reached behind me and pulled out the first book my fingers touched. The Divine Comedy, of course. I flipped through the old pages not looking for a particular passage, simply trying to look as though I was preoccupied with minutia. Silence had become a commodity in my life, and like most things in this world it never lasted, that is to say that at that moment Hephaestus nearly knocked down the door with a flabbergasted expression on his face.

"Jeb's gone!" The book clapped shut when it hit the ground, the echo bounced off the walls uninterrupted.

"What do you mean he's gone?" Hades shouted incredulously.

"He left the School, and he took the Avians with him."

"All of them?" The rest of the conversation was inaudible to me; their mouths flew in a flurry of muted words. I fell back into my chair and closed my eyes. He really left, he was afraid of me, he was afraid of what I could do to him, who I could become. A failure.

I tried to calm myself, attempting to clear my mind of the chaotic storm that the school was being thrown into. Slowly the thoughts of others crept into my mind. Confusion devoured all of them, scientists and erasers, even the experiments. Out of the depths of the confusion I was able to pick out a glimmer of panic. It was the avians and Jeb.

"Felix!" Hades was shaking my shoulder, his face a muddle of confusion and concern.

"I'm fine." Liar.

* * *

Well I hope that after not updating for a few months, you aren't completely mad at me. *on his knees begging for forgiveness* Please forgive me. On the upside it's summer for me which means I'll have more time to write. A lot more time.

On the other hand, at least now we know the real reason why Jeb left the School with the Avians. Plot twist much huh? TBC, so all in due time.


	36. Chapter 36

*Blows dust off an old file to reminisce on the times when he actually updated* Dear word... It's been over a year since I actually wrote anything... I wonder if any of you even remember my little story. I suppose I could provide a plethora of reasons for why I have utterly failed as a writer in finishing a story, but for the sake of what is to come I'll simply request that you PM me for the specifics and a catch-up on how things have been in the "Great" Northwest as of late. And now to brush off yet another of my ever so old cliches.

I own nothing!

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Chapter 36: New Beginnings?

Needless to say that in the chaos that followed after Jeb pilfered the avians, I was in no state to be trifled with. Hades did his best to try to put even the faintest glimmer of a smile on my face, and somewhere deep down his friendship resonated with me, but I had found myself completely preoccupied with another matter in its entirety.

It hadn't been twenty-four hours after Jeb had abandoned us all when it became no secret that in his hurry Jeb had forgotten something dearly important, something that I knew would one day come to haunt him for the rest of his natural life. He had forgotten his son, Ari.

I was nestled in my chair in the break room, my chin resting against a coiled fist and my elbows dug into the armrests. My gaze was fixated on the little child that sat before me, who looked back at me every half minute or so to see if I was still paying attention to him. Ari. There was an innocence in those eyes that I hadn't seen since I last gazed at Phoenix, and sad to say, it troubled me. How was it possible that the spawn of Jeb could be a mere child? What gnawed at my conscious like guilt was that Jeb had not only abandoned us, but his own flesh and blood. Was there nothing that man wouldn't do to achieve his ends?

Ari stacked a set of blocks into a tower, his amusement at what I'm sure he considered a grand achievement threw me back to my experience in Paris. The memory of his face covered in melted cheese made the corners of my mouth rise ever so slightly. I envied him, to the uneducated eye he was just an ordinary child, but upon further inspection he was a tabula rusa, unblemished and unscathed. He defied everything I had been exposed to, when I was his age I was being experimented on, I had known fear, I wondered if I was going to continue to think and feel the next day, or if I would be able to endure.

My gaze grew darker and as if he could feel my glare he turned his head towards me. He tilted his head just ever so slightly off to the side, analyzing the perplexing look I had on my face. Beneath that tranquil exterior his mind was no doubt judging me, attempting to conclude whether or not I would be a benevolent force or a chaotic force.

Just then Hades came into the room, his hair was a mess, as if he couldn't stop running his fingers nervously through it.

"We've lost all traces of him. It's like he did everything Locke had done down to the letter." My jaw clenched. Hades' eyes dashed back and forth between Ari and me. Hades chuckled. "It's like he's sizing you up."

"Children have no sense of self." I said rising to my feet. "However, they also have no sense of others or the permanence of matter." I paced over and crouched next to Ari. "Because of this, they are the most ego-centric, narcissistic, and fearful people we will ever know." I placed my hand on Ari's head. "And yet they are as close to perfect as we will ever be." Hades hooked his thumbs in his pockets. "It makes me wish I could still be like that." Very gently I began probing Ari's mind in an attempt to know if he had any idea of the significance of what was occurring around him. There were almost no words, just feelings and sensations. Hunger, persistent curiosity, and he was slightly on edge. He hadn't concluded if I would be harmful to him or not. But there was something else deep down in his mind, but it kept repeating itself, and that alerted me to its presence. He was longing for something... his father.

"I don't think you'll ever grow up entirely." I looked at him curiously. "You're too much of a child at heart." He crouched down next to Ari as well. "And that's all that matters in my book." He put his hand on my head. "Your like the little brother that I never had." That comment caught me completely off guard. After all that we had been through, to me, Hades had been nothing but a good friend, quite possibly the only people outside of my pack who I could trust one hundred percent. But that was just the immediate shock. To him, I was like family, a commodity that every Eraser sacrificed in the name of scientific progress. Naturally my mind progressed to reflect on what little family I had known in my pitiful excuse of a life. My pack was so much more then family, however only one person could truly be called family. Victoria. I was stolen from her when she needed someone the most, she genuinely loved me as a brother, as someone who she was connected to by just more then social experience.

My gaze drifted back and forth between Hades and Ari, I was dumbfounded and I had no clue how I was supposed to react to what Hades had said. He chuckled at the expression on my face and Ari remained blissfully unaware of was going on around him, that is until Hades' cell phone rang. He got up and took a few steps aside.

"Yes... He is?... Now?..." He shot me an odd look. "I escort them there now... Yes." The phone disappeared into his pocket and he hooked his thumbs in his pockets again. "Well I've got some news."

"Good news or bad news?" I said getting to my feet, Ari's eyes immediately tried to connect with mine.

"That will be for you to decide. Come on, I'm to escort you and Ari to the conference room." My memories of the conference room weren't the most pleasant, and so with some resentment I followed Hades. Before I even took my first step I felt a little hand clasp onto mine, Ari had a death grip on me, and the determination in his eyes told me that this was the way it was going to be. We followed Hades to the conference room, there was an air of uncertainty around him, setting me on edge.

When we arrived Hades held the door open for me, Ari refused to let go so he came in right behind me. The Chairman was sitting at the far end of the table which came as no surprise to me, his fingers were laced and his eyes were closed, I could sense his eyes moving underneath their lids, judging where I would be when he did open them. I sat down not far from him, Ari looked up at me and I sat him on my lap, he continued to cling to my arm, his head facing the door and Hades. The Chairman cleared his throat and opened his eyes.

"In the wake of Jeb's unforeseen departure from the company, we've decided that we should not pursue him or the avians." He paused, waiting for me to respond.

"What about-"

"The boy?" He cut me off. "He's to remain here, under your supervision." He got up and turned around. "We plan on making the most of him in due time, however he is not to be harmed or tampered with in our current situation. Jeb will not so lightly abandon the only free flesh and blood he has, he will come back someday..." His voice trailed off with his thoughts. "As for how you will conduct your raising of the child, we have decided to let you choose. Of course you will be under constant watch. We haven't forgotten your little experience with that madman." His jaw clenched.

_We don't want another madman on our hands._

The room went silent. We were both analyzing the severity of what had just been communicated. The Chairman had just handed over Ari to me, as if he was some sort of assignment or project. How was I supposed to handle a child? Until recently I had no memory of my childhood, how could I raise one myself if I wasn't even old enough to be a father? Not only that, but The Chairman didn't trust me, none of the higher-ups did. They were afraid of me, of what I could become. They were using me; not just me, but Ari as well. They were using him as bait to get Jeb back, and me to get Locke to start dropping clues of what he was planning.

I heard Hades shifting uncomfortably by the door, his hand was already gripping the handle, all to well aware of the painfully short visits that the board of directors would often privilege us with. The Chairman's gaze seemed to pierce through me, as if he was attempting to stare down Hades, Ari, and myself in one swift blow. Ari began to tremble, and a damp cold sweat from his palms was soaking through the sleeve of my suit.

"Felix, he doesn't look well." Hades said with a great deal of concern. I shook my head slightly, his comment snapped the tension in the air and I sunk into the chair a little bit. Ari, in an attempt to readjust himself, slipped out of my lap and onto the floor; seeing this as an opportunity Hades opened to door for us to leave. This time, I was the one stood up first and left that cursed room behind. Ari chased after me and when he finally caught up automatically attached himself to me. We paced back to the break room in silence, and when we arrived Hades let out a heavy sigh.

"Am I the only one who thinks that he's nothing but trouble?" Ari looked at Hades' sudden expression of opinion with a great deal of concern about whether the comment was directed towards him.

"Careful Hades, he's sharper then he looks." I retorted in Ari's defense. Hades rolled his eyes jokingly and took seat on the couch, I sat in my chair and Ari went back to his blocks. I directed my attention back to Hades who was looking at Ari. "No you're not. It seems that he's been the bearer of bad news since the beginning. I doubt that he really wishes this on us, but there is a level of disgust that I can read off of him, it's as though on an unconscious level he enjoys disrupting our lives." Hades flashed me a quick glance.

"And you got all of that from just being in the same room as him? You really need a vacation." I smirked at his jest, he was trying to cheer me up, it's not like I could shoot down his attempts, but there was a sincerity that I couldn't turn down. I did need a break from it all, lately my life had been one catastrophic series of events that never seemed to end.

It was at that moment that the door silently swung open, The Chairman entered with his head held lower then usual. I could feel an uneasiness about him, anxiety and discomfort. He cleared his throat roughly, readjusting his tie when he was done.

"Forgive the intrusion, but I'm afraid that our meeting wasn't finished." Hades had turned so he could see both of our faces, Ari paid us no mind. "In the wake of current events, I wish to extend an invitation to the Institute for you and Ari, you would be free to stay for as long as you saw fit." He stopped, broke eye contact with me to glance at Hades and Ari, and headed for the door as slowly as he entered. Pausing at the doorway, the corners of his mouth rose like man who's just cheated successfully in a game of chance. "Oh, and my son will be there as well. I'm sure he would be most grateful for your visit." He closed the door and Hades clenched his fists.

"Who does we think we are?" The tone of his voice told me he didn't expect an answer. "Felix I'm getting sick and tired of all this madness, would it kill them to tell us a bit of truth?"

I didn't quite know how to answer that. In my mind I thought that it just might do the higher ups in if they did speak the truth, but that wasn't the only thing that caught my attention. The way he had addressed Isaac was too ominous for my liking. It was almost as if it was a purposely baited afterthought. A trap? Coming from The Chairman of all people it probably was. But I couldn't just turn it down, it was an opportunity for me to see Isaac again, and maybe get some truth or answers from his cryptic little mind. Besides, I'm sure Ari would like to see him again, it has been a long time since they last saw each other.

"You know what Hades, it just might. It just might..."

* * *

Revamped plot for the win! During my extended absence I still did have the occasional though about where this story could go beyond what I had already intended for it, the good news is that I get to include some of the new material immediately; for those of you who do by chance remember this sad excuse of an author, you'll remember a devious fiend who always has a plot twist or two up his sleeve so be on your guard. The minute details are as important as ever! Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.


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